I survived the first day of work. It was tiring.

It took me an hour to get in there but an hour and 25 minutes to get home on account of very heavy traffic on the Interstate. To give you an idea of the congestion, it's only 33 miles. I took a different route this time which probably cut in half the amount of time I spend on the Interstate, but it probably would not be workable to take all back roads and avoid it entirely.

Just this morning, before leaving for work, I idly calculated my daily gross pay and I was surprised to see that the gross pay for a 3-day work week would be $3,536 a month, more than enough to get by and have some savings to spare. (Remember, no mortgage now.) The gross for a full 40 hour week would be $5,893.

I recalled that the hiring manager said at the interview she needed someone there 5 days a week, on site and that they really needed two new people, not just one. So I had the impression they were swamped with work.

So imagine my surprise, shortly after arriving there, when the hiring manager is showing me around and I wanted to clarify my work hours for this week and next, ie, that this first week I’d only be working two days (so I can tie up some other loose ends) and then I would start in full-time the following week. That’s what the plan was and what I discussed with the recruiter.

But the hiring manager said oh, no, we decided we’d have you work just 3 days a week to start and bring you on full time down the road. Didn’t anyone tell you?? I said NO! No one did. I’m not sure exactly WHO was supposed to tell me but I imagine someone from their HR should have communicated that to the recruiter, who would have told me. But someone dropped the ball.

Imagine how upsetting that could be to someone who really needed full-time work. I had, after all, quit my p/t job already! In hindsight, I could have conceivably kept both jobs, although in truth it would seem to be very unworthwhile to hang onto the lower paying proofreading job I had.

And truth be told, after experiencing that awful commute one day, I am relieved that they want me to start at three days a week. It could actually be ideal for me, the happy middle between dealing with the long commute and still having some free time and sanity. I might never want to do any more than that! I wonder how long they’d want me at 3 days a week?
I really feel so out of the loop on this when you’d think I’d be first to know. At least give me a chance to discuss it with you.

Aside from that, it was a rather uneventful first day. I attended two brief meetings and came away understanding very little of what was discussed. The marketing group is very young. I think I’m the oldest one of the bunch. I did some simple proofing and spent most of the day reading stuff on their website, as directed by my manager. I hope I can find some people to connect with/relate to; as I said, the people there are very young.

They use Macs there and so that took some getting used to. I used one at the last f/t job I had, but that was back in 2009. They also use Google Docs which I’ve used before, but don’t really understand well. So there’s a lot of new stuff to get used to.
One funny thing is that the same HR woman who worked with me when I first joined my last employer in 2008 also did the same here! In fact, about 10 people from that last f/t employer of mine migrated over to this company. I didn’t know any of them well, but I did recognize some faces.

I got a lot done today:

1. Went to TJ Maxx to see if I could find some capris or other summer pants for the new job, but found nothing. I had so much better luck at Macy's last week.

2. Mowed the grass.

3. Made a lamb casserole, and since I had the big oven going, I threw in the last of my sweet potatoes and also made a double batch of granola, which tastes better toasted.

4. Got an early start this a.m. with Anita, who shared my job at the p/t proofreading job. We had breakfast and hit an outdoor flea market but that was a bust since it was pretty chilly out and there were hardly any vendors.

5. I vacuumed both floors.

6. I continued editing the Author's 3rd book, Tainted Glass.

Tomorrow is my last day of "freedom." I really need to use the trimmer on the fenced in garden, to keep it in check. But I ran out of string; hopefully, fitting the new replacement string in there is not a big deal.

I see that the zucchini, cucumber and squash seeds I planted never germinated. All this chilly weather may have dashed that from happening. So enough with the seeds, it's Memorial Day Weekend already. Tomorrow I'll pick up some seedlings and plop them in the ground.

I've told 2 of my freelance clients I'm starting the new f/t job. They both handled it well. My #1 client said well, we have a certain rhythm going, you know the business and you have the fastest turnaround, which is so important in this business. So they're fine with me doing their jobs just on weekends. The other client said he was excited for me and that he'd "take what I can get" as far as more limited editing availability.

I want to spend more time perusing my new employer's website to really absorb their "voice."

I'm all organized as far as the car goes, and was able to push back my pick-up day to Friday instead of Thursday. That gives me a little more time to get the new Chase Sapphire Preferred card in the mail. So of the 3 cards I ordered same day, the 1st I already hit the spend target (when I paid for the car deposit), I'm working on the 2nd card right now and will get that 3rd one, the biggie, sometime this coming week.

I have a half a bag of organic potatoes that sprouted and I'm going to plant a few of the spuds in the front yard and see if they take off. There's no more room in the fenced garden, but I'll just plant potatoes anywhere that's sunny and see if the deer/woodchucks overlook them.

Gee, what a difference a dealership makes...

I headed out this morning to the local Honda dealer. They weren’t the lowest Internet price given to me via email among the half dozen dealerships I’d contacted, and I WAS prepared to drive 45 minutes out of my way to one of two other dealerships that had more or less tied for lowest price.

But the spread in prices among the 6 dealers I'd contacted was really not as big as you might think for such a big purchase ($437), so I figured I’d try the local dealer first. I was already armed with Kelly’s Blue Book and Edmund’s ideas of a “fair” price, and so I only needed to get the dealer to agree to come down about $200.

He began by explaining that their “Internet price” was a non-negotiable, no-haggle price and the lowest they could go. After I ignored that statement and explained that I needed him to come down $200 more (to be in line with the KBB price), he agreed without any fuss. (Maybe I could have gotten more off, who knows.)

I got the window visors I wanted and $1,000 for my 14-year-old Honda so the total cost to me was $19,970 (including the window visors, sales tax, registration fees and my trade-in) for a 2013 HF sedan (auto transmission, cruise control, remote entry, radio/phone controls on the steering wheel, CD player, low tire pressure sensor) which gets 41 mpg highway (This is approaching hybrid mileage without the hybrid price tag.) The total price was exactly the price KBB indicated was a "fair" price.

Plus, I had applied for THREE new rewards credit cards last weekend, hoping I’d have them in time to use for partial payment of the car. (Taking a tip from Monkey Mama, I think, I made sure to apply for all 3 at the same time to avoid being turned down because one credit card company interpreted the other recent card acquisitions as evidence I'm desperate for money or something.)

I got one of the new cards yesterday, an Amex Blue Cash Every Day card, and that was really the only reason I went out car shopping today instead of next week. By using it for the deposit, I was able to earn an immediate $100 cash back from Amex in that single transaction, and if I get one of the other two cards in the mail by next Thursday, I can earn at least another $100 back by charging another $1,000. (The max they would let you charge is $2,000.) The dealer said I’d have to pay for the rest of the car with a cashier’s check, but that’s ok.

The other 2 cards I’m waiting for are the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card (get $100 back after spending $500 in 3 months) and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (get $400 back after spending $3,000 in 3 months). Now I never thought I could spend $3,000 in 3 months with the Chase card, but if I charged the $1,000 for the car next week, I’d only have $2,000 more to spend in 3 months, and there was a time once before, I believe, where I was able to hit a $2,000 spending target in 3 months while being unemployed. Now that I’ll be working, starting next week, I should be able to spend more money on things like gas, definitely. We’ll make it work. I can always buy a ton of food. Hey, and I forgot! I can charge my new car insurance on the card!

The question is, will I get the card in time to use it Thursday? I applied for it online last Sunday and instead of an immediate approval like I always get with new cards, I got an email saying it would take some time and they'd let me know in 30 days by mail if I was approved. Maybe they had a problem with my self-employment income? Not sure.

But then when I was looking at my other Chase accounts online, I noticed the Chase Sapphire Preferred was listed there with a $12,000 limit! But I still don't have the card. Rep said it takes 5 to 10 business days and by Wednesday afternoon, and given the holiday, only 7 business days will have passed. I suppose I could delay the car pick-up one more day, til Friday, but if I didn't get the card in the mail Thursday afternoon, I'll just have to pay using the other credit card I was approved for, assuming I also get that one in the mail by then. If I wind up not using the Sapphire Preferred card for the partial car payment, I would probably just cancel it becus that's a pretty tough spend target without the car payment and there's a $95 fee after the first year. So might as well not hang onto it.

I could have taken the new car home today, but I’m delaying it til next week on account of those credit cards rewards, plus I want to see how much I can get the insurance quotes I got down by raising the deductible from $500. And I also have to wait to get a cashier’s check too.

I start the new job Tuesday, and had already arranged to work only Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week so I could wrap up loose ends. So I’ll have Thursday and Friday off next week and can pick up the car and take care of that. They said they’d remove the kayak rack off the old car. At first, I was going to have them install it on the new car, but he wasn’t sure it would fit and then I started thinking I’d probably not want to scratch up the new car with a kayak or even just installing the rack, so for now, I’ll take it home with me and keep it off. But then that means I can’t ever go kayaking unless I go with someone else who has a truck or rack themselves.

Hmm.

I’m pretty well satisfied with the car purchase and was amazed how different this experience was from the Ford dealer. The sales rep was super laid back and very easy to deal with, not pushy/aggressive in the least.

Since my Cobra ends 6/30/13, I’d been focusing on what my options were. I’d assumed I’d have to go on Charter Oak, the state high risk pool plan at $589/month. But then I got this new contract job where I start work Tuesday, and like most recruiter employment agencies, they offer health coverage to their contract employees. I went to check it out and saw they offered 5 options for health plans but all but two of them required you to be a New York resident. Of the two, one was a high deductible plan which didn’t suit my needs and the other, well, I spent quite some time yesterday filling out their application, reviewing the plan benefits and talking to a rep. I had a lot of questions as this plan is offered through a union which you have to join to enroll in the health plan and there was a ton of forms. But I thought the monthly premiums were pretty decent, at “just” $500 (compared to the $562 I’m paying now thru Cobra), plus you had to pay one-time union dues of $95.

Then, I learned very late in the game that they don’t provide prescription drug coverage for the drug I’m on for the MS! I’d have to pay out of pocket to the tune of $4,000 a month for this very expensive drug. (It used to cost about $1,000 a month when it first came out, but the drug-maker will lose its patent soon and is trying to recoup its R&D costs now, especially since 3 or 4 other drug-makers have released, or are about to release, an oral form of this medication, which will obviously be much more popular with patients than needles).

But of course there’s no way I could pay $4,000 a month for Copaxone, so after spending all this time preparing to apply for the union plan, I had to back out and return to Option B, which was the state Charter Oak plan.

That application will go out in today’s mail and the rep told me I should be able to be effective on it July 1.

Now yesterday when I spoke to a rep at my current Cobra plan, he suggested delaying my payment for the last and final month I’ll be on the Cobra (June) until late June. If I could avoid seeing a doctor or otherwise incurring any healthcare expenses, then he advised I simply don’t make any payment for June at all. Although I usually would mail payment a week before the first of each month, they have a 30-day grace period for receipt of payment, so as long as the payment was postmarked by the last day of June, they would accept it and retroactively cover me for month of June.

If I didn’t incur any healthcare expenses for June, then I could just skip payment for June entirely and be accepted onto the new state plan effective July 1. Under HIPPA rules, as long as there’s no interruption in healthcare coverage for more than 63 days, they can’t deny you coverage for a pre-existing condition like MS. So my 30-day lapse in coverage wouldn’t affect my coverage moving forward AND I would have avoided paying for the last month of my COBRA in June, and as it happens they increased the fees from the $562/month I’m paying now to $770/month, incredibly.

I’ve been stockpiling my expensive Copaxone meds for years just to ensure I have the meds I need in exactly this kind of in-between jobs scenario. While it looks like renewing my meds down the road wouldn’t be a problem based on what I just said above, I was always nervous about this becus this drug is incredibly expensive. But by ordering my meds a little earlier than really needed, I’ve been able to accumulate a 7.5 month supply of Copaxone. (The expiration dates are long out, so no problem there.)
In fact, I was able to reorder the drug yesterday and already have it delivered. Now usually this particular mail order pharmacy would only give me a 30-day supply at a time, even though my neurologist writes me a prescription good for a year at a time. So I was surprised when I got the shipment that they included 3 months in it instead of 1. They must have changed their policies. Many other pharmacies DO ship 3 months a time. So that really helped me with my stockpile.

At least that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about til probably October, which is when open enrollment begins for 2014 and the new healthcare exchanges made possible by Obamacare. At that time, unless I’ve gotten a salaried job that provides benefits like health insurance, I foresee myself shopping around once again for health insurance. It would be nice to get something cheaper than $589 a month under Charter Oak, but who really knows. I also noticed that the Charter Oak plan does not include my neurologist as an in-network provider, so while I have plenty of medication supply left to see me through 2013, if I had an unexpected MS problem/relapse, I’d have to find a new neurologist.

Luckily, since I’ve been going to a bunch of physician lecture/dinners sponsored by the drug company that makes Copaxone, there’s a doctor I like and have become familiar with who is on the Charter Oak network. He’s maybe 30 minutes away, further than I’d like in the middle of a MS relapse, but it would work.

I can’t believe I’ve had to devote so much time to figuring out this whole health insurance mess. Mainly because I’m 1. Lacking in employer sponsored health coverage and 2. I have a pre-existing condition that requires expensive drugs.

Ugh. It’s incredible to me that I had to spend 6 hours of my day today on health insurance coverage. As you know, I’m in transition, job-wise. However, I was told of a way that will likely save me $767 in premium coverage.

Here’s the deal. I’ve been on Cobra, like, forever. I’m paying $562 a month but it’s that time of year for re-enrollment or whatever, and monthly premiums are rising to $767!!! However, my eligibility for Cobra ends June 30 regardless, and I’ve known all along I’d have to find something else. I THOUGHT I’ve have to go on the plan of last resort, the state plan for low-income people, which goes for $589/month, and then stay on that through the end of the year. After that, I hoped to pick up a better plan vis a vis Obamacare.

However, with the new job, I can get health insurance through the recruiter agency, but it wouldn’t be effective until July 1, and the paperwork has to be in to them by June 10. The new plan will represent something of a cost savings to me at $495 a month. It’s through a union, though, so I have to join the union and then pay a one-time $95 fee for union dues.
Since I’m not effective on the new plan until July 1, I still need coverage for the month of June. When talking to the customer service rep for my current Cobra plan and after explaining my situation (that I have only 1 more month to stay on Cobra), he reminded me that there’s a 30-day grace period for the premium payments.

That is, while I normally would send in my payment for June coverage in late May (like right about now), he said if I felt I could avoid seeing a doctor or incurring other healthcare expenses in June, that I could possibly save myself the $767 for the last month of coverage that I need with Cobra.

With the 30-day grace period, I can delay payment for the month of June to as late as June 31 and still be covered, retroactively, if I needed it. As long as my premium payment is postmarked in June, I’m covered.
I went ahead and ordered another 30-day supply of my MS meds today so running out won’t be an issue. I had a doc apt I just rescheduled in late June, but I can reschedule it for July when I’m on the new plan. So I should be able to get through June with no medical issues.

I'm so glad I talked to this guy because I would have never thought of that on my own.

So, last I checked, the $500 deposit at Colonial Ford has NOT been returned. Credit card company said it could take 3 to 5 days, which would bring me to Friday, so I’m just trying to sit tight and be patient. I don’t see why they would say they would refund it and then not do so because it would just make the customer (me) more irate. It would be playing games when there was no benefit to them to do so, unless they actually thought they could keep the $500.

Anyhoo……I’m collecting prices from a half dozen area Honda dealers. The prices are all in the same ballpark with not much more than a $400 difference between them. However, I’ve come to the conclusion that all this effort on my end is pretty much a wasted exercise since when I finally go in to test a 2013 Civic, when the dealer learns that I will NOT be financing the car, they will likely try to make up the lost profit from financing by low-balling me on the trade-in value.

I could go in to test drive the new Civic anytime this week, but I applied for THREE bonus/rewards credit cards last Sunday after someone commenting on my blog reminded me I could pay for the car that way and easily stack up some nice rewards. However, while I know I could use a card for the deposit, they may not let you pay for the whole thing with a credit card. The purchase agreement I had for the Colonial Ford car said in big letters that you had to pay with cash or a cashier’s check.

So of the 3 credit cards I applied for, I was immediately approved for 2; the other indicated the approval would take longer and they’d respond back via mail. Not sure what the problem was there; perhaps my self-employed status? I didn’t like the idea of disclosing my new employer’s name and phone number…too invasive, so I just said I was self-employed, which I am. I applied for all 3 cards on the same day so that credit checks done for 1 or 2 wouldn’t affect the 3rd. I don’t know if I’ll be able to use them for the car, but I’ll have them next week, so that’s why I was thinking of delaying the next step in the process until then.

I noticed that Executive Honda, the dealer with the lowest price, has 40 reviews listed on Yelp, and every single one of those 40 reviews gives them 5 stars. Now I'm sorry, I don't believe these were made by legitimate customers; I'm quite sure the dealership has employees make up comments like this. Many of them list the sales rep by name and use words like "magnificent" and "fantastic" to describe their experience. Yeah, like, umm, I don't think so.

This morning I had an appointment to have a test done to see if I have asthma. You have to keep breathing in this substance which basically narrows your air passages so if you did have asthma, you’d have trouble breathing. The machine has to register at least a 20 to indicate you have asthma. I only registered a 9. So I don’t have asthma.

My dad decided on impulse to come up for a visit from Jersey. 3 hour drive. He took a wrong turn after going over the Bear Mountain Bridge and ended up getting lost for a while, but he got here around 2 pm. He showed up in his new Kia Soul, which is cute, and he let me drive it as we went to my sister’s to drop off some plants for her (he brought me a dozen tomato seedlings he’d grown from seed) and then we went to the diner for lunch. We hung out at my house afterwards for a bit, but then he left around 4 pm to drive all the way back there!! I keep saying stay the night, and I don’t know how you do it, but he doesn’t seem to think it’s a biggie. I’m sure he hit rush hour traffic on the way home, too.

After he left, I drove up to my neighbor’s behind me to return some milk and tea bags Stephen left behind at my place when he come over the other day for a long visit. Ended up gabbing with his wife for an hour or so. They are like the best neighbors you’d ever want to have. Their house is listed and they had a realtor’s open house a few days ago (the reason for Stephen’s visit….he had to vacate the house).

After that, I went back home and mowed the lawn (still not done). Also planted half the cherry tomatoes.

I offered some of them to my friend The Author in return for a bunch of carpet remnants she offered me. She’s been working at a carpeting/tile store and they’re getting rid of tons of discontinued remnants which she said make great bath mats. Any other uses you can see for these things? I want to get some but not sure what I’d use them for.

I picked off 2 adults tickets off me as I was planting my tomato seedlings. Not sure where the heck they came from.

Today was the perfect kind of day and a great example of why I love my unstructured time so much, which is only possible when you don’t work full-time. I didn’t have any of the things I did today on my “agenda,” but all in all, it was an enjoyable and pleasant day.
So this one Honda dealer has offered me the lowest price of all on the Civic HF. It’s actually the dealer invoice price, and all they’re adding to the “out the door” price is sales tax, registration fees and $400 conveyance fee. The only place where I see them making any money is the conveyance fee. Consumer Report lists this as one of their “unavoidable” fees but said you should question the charge if it’s higher than $300.

The other fee is registration fees - varies between $118 and $188 depending on if you are transferring plates or registering new. But according to Consumer Reports, the conveyance fee is for processing documents that establish your title and registration. So why would they charge for that twice? Hmm.

Oh, yeah. So after I met my friend the recruiter at Starbucks this past Monday night to sign all the paperwork for the new job, I gave my notice to my p/t proofreading $12/hr job. I explained that my new employer wanted me to start right away (day after Memorial Day next week) and that since work was so slow, I'd like to not have to give notice since I'm car shopping.

I learned through A., who shares my job and cubicle there with me, that my immediate manager L. was taking it personally and didn't like that I hadn't come in to tell them I was leaving. I suppose I could have but in truth i had a feeling L. would react badly to it, like a personal affront

I knew everyone would be asking for all the details about where I was going. There are some people there I was pretty friendly with. It would be awkward to put those people off with vague answers about where I was going, but if i told 1 or 2 people, it would be like telling them all. And call me paranoid but I wouldn't feel comfortable letting L. know where I was going in case she wanted to badmouth me.

So while J., L.'s manager, wrote me a brief, one-line email saying good luck with the new job, I never did hear a word back from L.

My neighbor Stephen said don't worry about it. You have to worry about yourself, not them. I felt all along this employer was taking advantage of me due to the low rate of pay, and while I allowed that to happen, becus i needed the money, I guess i never felt i owed them much respect, becus in that regard, I felt they disrespected me. Employers will boot you out the same day they lay you off, but somehow they still expect 2 weeks notice if you're leaving them.

I think L. considers herself a likable boss, but in truth I really resented the way she treated me when I gently declined to make any more sales calls. If they want someone to make sales calls, then hire someone to do it; don't make me do every single grunt job wherever there's a labor shortage....no commission offered to boot.

She was positively badgering me to do it and for some ungodly reason she had to bring the whole thing up and rehash it all the following week after I thought we'd put it behind us. She seemed to find it remarkable that an employee would "just say no" to work they requested you do. While I would be careful when I said no in a full-time position that I actually cared about and paid decently, this job was so low-paying that I felt there wasn't much risk of being fired, and really not much to lose. They know that my counterpart and I are way overqualified and doing a much better job than they've experienced in the past when they filled these positions with summer interns.

So I called Colonial Ford this a.m. The main sales guy was with a customer, left a message with him. His mgr. out today. So after not hearing back from sales guy, I asked for Wanda, who was the one who had me sign the purchase agreement.

Victory #1: I said etching was never discussed, i didn't sign it or agree to it. First she says it's mandatory, then I read her the law out loud (eg, that i don't have to pay it) and she fairly quickly said they could take that off.

I said, well why did you just tell me it's mandatory? She quoted me the law number and said she's show me when i came in. I have a different law number here in hand so it doesn't really matter; I still don't have to accept it.

So, just to be clear, CT law does REQUIRE a dealer to offer etching service but it's optional and the customer can decline the charge.

So if someone was not paying attention, when she said "it's mandatory," if you hadn't already investigated the law you might not realize that while it's mandatory they offer it, it's not mandatory that you accept..

Then I brought up the $820 add-on charge for the "comfort upgrade package" (this included heated seats, alarm, some moldings). I said that when i built the 2013 (same model) on Ford's website with the exact same options/add-ons, the heated seats, alarm and moldings are INCLUDED in the base price!

So why was i paying $820 extra, i asked her. She said that even though it said on the Ford website that those features are "included" as standard features on the Ford "build your own" website, that they will also be listed as separate line items. Maybe that is so. The price when i built it online, after including tax, incentives and trade in, came to $19,994 vs the $20K i had negotiated with the 2012 model. But shouldn't i be paying LESS for a 1-year-old car, even if it hasn't been driven?

Victory #2?? I told her i thought this was all deceptive sales practices (thought not illegal) and that I wanted my deposit back. She didn't dispute that but said ok. I asked her when she would do that transaction and she said i don't know, i have to find out from my sales mgr. I asked her to let me know. She said ok.

I am a little surprised they didn't say you won't get your deposit back. It says you lose it on the back of the purchase agreement. Maybe that news will be delivered by the sales mgr. or maybe they will back down more easily becus i mentioned calling Ford Motor Co. and DMV to "clarify" things.

What do I make of this? I think that they are just skirting the edges of what's legal here. While what they're doing is not illegal, it is deceptive.

They say things like "it's mandatory," that lead you to believe something that isn't really true. If I hadn't challenged it, I'd be paying $200 more for useless etching, and i think they count on at least a portion of customers to fall for that. I didn't even challenge the $399 conveyance fee. I don't have the energy. I just want out. Once I get my deposit back, and I'm still anxious that i will, i will STILL file a complaint with DMV (i already printed out the form) to complain about how this all went down. You practically need a degree to go head to head with these sharks.

And then, after learning SO much about car-buying, I will head over to the Honda dealership. Hondas maybe boring (I've had 3 in a row now) but they are very reliable.

At this point, while I wait for dealership to open, I'm still not sure if I want to keep the Fiesta or not.

It's possible, IF he takes off the $199 etching fee, that I will keep the car.

However, I found something else that concerns me.
On my copy of the window sticker for the 2012 Ford Fiesta SES, there are 3 options shown. One of them is an extra $820 for the comfort upgrade package, which includes the heated seats, alarm and some moldings.
I went back to Ford Motor Co. website and “built my own” 2013 Fiesta Titanium. (The Titanium is the new name for the highest model in the Fiesta line; it replaced the SES). I noticed that the heated seats, alarm etc are all included as STANDARD in the 2013 model. So why am I paying $820 for it in the 2012 model????

The dealer may respond yeah it’s included in the 2013 model, but it’s more money, too. When I finished “building” my car online using all the same options and add-ons that are on the 2012 Fiesta I purchased, it came to $19,994 (which includes sales tax, all incentives and my trade-in value), so that’s about the same as the $20,000 price that I negotiated with the dealer.

It’s that $20,000 figure that, when broken down on the sales agreement, includes the $199 for etching.
I remember the dealer saying at one point when the cost was down to $20,426, what will it take for you to buy this car? If we bring it down to an even $20,000, will that seal the deal? I agreed.

So now they may say, look, what do care whether it includes etching or not, because you’re still paying a total of $20,000, which I am. It’s just that when they wrote it up on the purchase agreement, they list the price of the car at $19,280, sales tax $1188, conveyance fee $399, etching $199 and transfer fees (DMV paperwork) $101.

I can’t figure out why they chose to list the car price as a lower figure on the purchase agreement and included those extra fees in there when they could have just said $20,000 for the car, period, since that’s what I said would work for me.

OK, while all of you have been congratulating me, I am feeling more and more upset about the whole new car purchase deal. Don’t get me wrong, the congrats was just what I wanted to hear to reassure myself I didn’t make a mistake. But that nagging feeling didn’t go away.

When I got home yesterday, I was still feeling nervous about the whole thing. As I read through the contract I had signed, I discovered a $199 charge for windshield etching on the bill that I hadn’t even seen when I signed it!

OF course, there was also the $400 “conveyance fee. Both those fees were PREPRINTED on the purchase agreement. When “Wanda” handed me the contract to sign, she took her index finger and, pointing to each handwritten figure on the form, she detailed the price and various options, sales tax, etc, and said out loud the calculations for each, totally distracting me from the preprinted fees. Well, I saw that conveyance fee and didn’t challenge it, but totally missed the etching fee.
Here’s how that line read: (Optional) Anti-Theft window Etching
I have been offered Anti-Theft Window Etching
__________________________________________

There’s a line below where it appears you’re supposed to sign to indicate you were offered it and declined. Some quick online research told me that etching fee is a widely used dealer tactic to basically pad their wallets. Many police stations do this for like $20 or even for free. I’m quite sure now that line item is required on the form, however they did not even bring it up with me and I didn’t sign it, though I did sign the contract.

Here's a portion of the contract. I just deleted my personal info at top and bottom and yes, my signature is at bottom. Notice, too,that they failed to fill in the warranty information at left side.



So I don’t like feeling like I was being taken advantage of after already knowing I bought considerably more car than I’d planned to, but the etching fee just put me over the top.

I not only don’t want to pay that, but I don’t want to buy the car from them, either.

Problem is, I had to give them a $500 deposit, and I will probably lose that money if I walk away from the deal. Although their sales tactics are unethical, I don’t believe they are illegal or even fraudulent. I’m not really sure if I can get my deposit back based on the fact they didn’t bring up the window etching before giving me the contract to sign. I should have read it, and I didn’t.

I will call Motor Vehicles and Consumer Protection to clarify it. I will call Colonial Ford to request return of the deposit. If they refuse, which they likely will, I will also call Ford Motor Co. to complain. I did this once years ago with Honda Motor Co. over some big repair bill I got from the dealer, and they did make contact with the dealer, who then gave me a partial discount on the bill because of it. The car maker is concerned with how dealers treat their customers, since it reflects badly on them as well.

After all this, I again looked over the proposed purchase agreement (which I HADN’t signed) from the first dealer I saw. He didn’t try to sell me a higher end version of the car I didn’t want and really, the car was just the “middle road” model (Basic: S, Mid-Level: SE and High End: SES) with auto transmission. I got the same discounts as I got at the 2nd dealer. It was a decent price at $17,321. I just balked when they offered only $800 for my Honda, although he had indicated before I walked out that he could probably get “a few hundred more” for my Honda if that would seal the deal. So if he did that and I also got them to knock off their stupid “document” fee of $75, then I would save an additional $275.

Then, if I found another upfront bonus reward card to apply for, get it in about a week, then use it to partially pay for the car, that’s an easy $100 back in a single transaction. I could use other rewards cards to wrack up points as well, as some of you have suggested. (Good suggestion, the money will be in my checking account anyway after being transferred, so why not?) So my loss would not be $500, it would be $125.

What do you think of all this? I felt so angry and stupid for so easily falling for some of the oldest car dealer scams around. Me, Patient Saver, who’s usually so careful about stuff like this. And the more I think of, I know I won’t likely use half that high end tech stuff in the SES model, don’t need a moon roof AT ALL, and could do without heated seats and leather at that.

Doing without all those nice extras would put $2390 back in my pocket, or $2265 after losing part of that $500 deposit.

I am either the biggest fool or got a great deal. Honestly, I’m not sure which it is.

Now most people don’t walk into a car dealership alone, but that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t feel like possibly waiting or coordinating with friends or family, and I was of the mindset of being on a mission to accomplish a car purchase as quickly as possible so I have it to start my new job. I also was hoping to make a deal this weekend and not have it drag into next week.

I did a ton of research online, and I had already decided I wanted a 2013 Ford Fiesta SE, although I was also leaving room for the possibility of test-driving a Prius today. That didn’t actually happen as I bought a NEW 2012 Fiesta SES.

I THOUGHT I knew exactly what I wanted after all that online research and comparing of costs and options, but it’s amazing how quickly you can start waffling, especially when you see how nice these cars are in person. And once you allow yourself to start doing that at the dealership, it quickly becomes very confusing becus you’re wanting to compare apples to apples but there are so many individual numbers to include. On top of that, I’d been feeling like I’ve “deprived” myself of most luxuries, certainly over these last 3.5 years, and overall I lead a very frugal lifestyle.

So I guess that was the perfect segue that helped contribute to my buying beyond what I’d planned when I arrived at the 2nd dealer. (The first dealer guy was a youngish guy and after spending a long time, I balked when he offered just $800 for my Civic, so I left.)

At the 2nd dealer, they had one Fiesta SE on hand, but they also mentioned they had a 2012 Fiesta SES, which is the top end of the Fiesta line. So I said I’d drive the 2012 model first. (Never did get to the 2013 one, but I had already driven that car at the first dealer.) They let me test-drive the car by myself.

OK, so I fell in love: It’s a white car with black leather seats trimmed in contrast piping, a moon roof (this I don’t care about), and FORD Sync/Bluetooth that responds to voice commands and lets you do hands free with your phone and a bunch of other stuff; I think it has built-in navigation. Heated seats, Sirius radio, ambient lighting...Warranty is 3 years/36K and 24/7 roadside assistance. I thought it was so cool that the car has a built-in UBS port in the console so I guess if you want to copy music onto a thumbdrive and then plug it in, you can do that. I’ll have to figure out how. In all honesty, the very basic cell phone I have now will NOT work with the Ford Sync system, altho I can still do hands free. I could upgrade to a better phone. Maybe a little later. The mileage is 39 highway/29 city. It has a very sporty spoiler.

Option-wise, there were some things I liked very much, like the leather seats and the spoiler, but they all come in packages that contained other things I could care less about, like the moon roof.

Do you see where I’m going with this? I bought the car. But since I started out wanting just the base SE model, no frills, I quickly became tripped up with all my calculations since while I had checked Kelly’s blue book and Edmund’s for “fair market price” for the base model, I hadn’t done that with the bells-and-whistles model.

However, I got $1500 in rebates/incentives, which I thought was pretty good. And this is a 2012 model with only 100 miles on it; it was never pre-owned, it was just leftover inventory. I do think they ripped me off some on the trade-in value of my 1999 Honda. According to online sources, I should’ve been able to get $1400 to $1800 for it and I got just $1100.
So, after sales tax, 2 rebates, the trade-in of my Honda and all fees, we settled on….deep breath….$20,000 even. The MSRP on it was $21,780.

I could have gotten more if I tried to sell the car myself, but I didn’t want the hassle or inconvenience, and this way, the dealer handles all the motor vehicle paperwork so I don’t even have to go there.

Months ago, after doing my research, I figured that after getting everything I wanted, I’d spend between $17,000 and $19,000, but that was before taxes ($1100), but also didn’t include my trade-in. Plus, for the first time in my life, I got all the bells and whistles, not the basic model. And I must say, I enjoyed driving the car.

Now if I had bought a 2013 Fiesta SES instead of the 2012 Fiesta SES, I wouldn’t have gotten quite so much in dealer incentives. Also, I’m hoping buying a year old car will mean my car tax will be lower, but I don’t know.

I have to contact my insurance agent Monday and have him fax a temp ID card for me to the dealer and then once my money transfers arrive in my checking account, I can go get a bank check and pick up the car. I’m hoping to do that Tuesday, Wednesday at latest.

Phew. I’m feeling a little unsettled and am hoping I won’t have buyer’s remorse. I’m used to spending the least possible amount, and this time, I allowed myself to spend a few thousand more due partly to being tired of the whole process (7 hours at 2 dealers) and, I admit, excited about things like leather seats.

I know, I know…realtors do that with houses all the time. You go into it saying this is my price range and then they show you homes maybe $40,000 more, hoping you’ll like it so much you’ll go for it. It’s exactly what happened to me today, but I DO like the car and think I’ll enjoy it. What may bother me more is the higher insurance costs and car tax i'll be paying! Plus I will no longer want to haul filthy dirty tree logs and stuff to the dump.

I will post pix when I have it home!

So my monthly gross at the new job will be $5893. The net should be around $4,225, based on an online net pay calculator I used.

My monthly gas, car insurance and CT car tax will all work to increase my monthly expenses, but I figure my minimum monthly expenses should stick to around $2,000, give or take. That means my potential monthly savings could range from between $1500 and $2,225 a month, or between $18,000 and $26,700 a year.

I don’t know if the recruiter agency offers a tax-deferred 401k-type plan. If they do, I’ll contribute, but only if it’s tax-deferred. Otherwise, I could contribute a bit more to my SEP-IRA, which I haven’t always funded these past few years cus I had no money to spare. Any additional savings will have to be taxable savings.

Disciplined as I am, I know I’ll feel a strong urge to loosen the purse strings after my long, self-enforced penny pincher ways. I mean, look at me, I’m already talking about buying a new car! Well, that was needed anyway, and all I did was push up the purchase by 5 months or so since I was planning on buying late in the year. I also need to get a bunch of new clothes. It’s business casual, thank goodness, but I’ve been working in my jammies for too long. And then there’s a long list of deferred maintenance around this place to think of.

I want to try to keep doing my freelance writing. I really have only one steady client who gives me the bulk of my work on a regular basis; they are pretty flexible with their deadlines and so if I can do their work on the occasional weekend,that would probably work.

Recruiter did say they offer a health plan to contract workers, but there’s a waiting period. Depending on how long the wait period and how much it costs, I might switch to it. Right now, I’m paying $562 a month for Cobra, but that ends June 30. Then I’ll have to go on the state plan, the plan of last resort for low income unemployed people or people who can’t otherwise get health insurance. That plan costs $589 a month although the copays and deductible are a bit lower than what I pay now. If the recruiter plan is significantly better, I’ll switch, but if not, I only need to stay on SOME plan til the end of the year, because in 2014 I can buy health insurance on the open market regardless of where I work and God willing, it’s more affordable than any of my choices now.

Just as I was writing my last post I was able to finalize an agreement to meet with recruiter Monday night at 8 pm in a town that’s about an half hour drive from home. He’s coming from work in NYC to meet me with all the paperwork and forms I have to fill out. Once I do that and have everything in writing, then I will give notice to my p/t employer, probably via email to 2 people late Monday night. While I will give them ONE week’s notice, I’m really hoping not to have to do that at all since they’re rather slow right now and I need the extra time to buy the new car, buy new clothes and get ready. But I would feel like a cad if I didn’t give them some notice, even if it is a p/t job that pays $12/hr.

In hindsight, it was really helpful and fortuitous that I happened to know the recruiter for this job very well. This was the guy who I worked side by side with for nearly 2 years when we were both writers at the same company in 2008-2009. We were about as close as 2 co-workers could be, and even sat right next to each other. I wasn’t consciously thinking of this when I was negotiating the pay rate, but I know him to be the kind of guy who doesn’t enjoy negotiating things and I sensed his strong desire and maybe some anxiety to wrap up the whole job deal today/tonight. My hunch was right, becus after I accepted verbally, he told me he was flying out of state to do something with his daughter and I guess will be gone over the weekend. So he probably really wanted to close this deal to secure his commission, especially as he’d also mentioned he had gotten this employer in the door, and it was the first time he’d done that. So this would be a coup for him, I would think. I’m glad I stuck to my guns and didn’t just accept the lowered pay rate without fighting for what I wanted. That’s something I would have done years ago but I learned the hard way….and I repeat, the very hard way, that you need to be your own best advocate at times like these, and vague assurances of other benefits down the road, which is what he was giving me, really mean nothing if you don’t have it in hand.

I had a 2-hour interview this morning and had an offer in hand this afternoon. After dickering back and forth about the rate of pay, we came to a tentative agreement.

What was the sticking point? When my friend the recruiter told me about the job, he said the pay was $35/hr. Then when the offer was made to me, it had dropped to $33/hr, and he didn’t really explain why. I kept asking why, who lowered the pay rate, was it his firm or the employer? He indicated it was the employer and said he’d try to push for partial work at home to compensate for that, but he wanted me to accept the job first, so that means no leverage if you don’t talk about work at home til afterwards.
I finally got him to agree to $34/hr. I mean, it would have been a $4100 drop in pay before even starting. The employer had said they’d been looking to fill the opening for a long time, so now that they found the right person, how could they justify lowering the pay? Almost like a bait and switch, if you ask me.

Still not sure if my friend the recruiter was being straight with me on all of that. It could have easily been his firm that figured most employees would agree becus they need the work. I am happy with the pay (it comes out to $70,000 a year, but with no benefits, no paid holidays, etc) although I have a LOT of concerns about the commute.

My friend the recruiter kept saying yeah, but you can always negotiate a higher salary when you get a perm job offer, but what the heck? If they’ve got an employee working on a freelance basis, why would they spend oodles of extra money on benefits when they really don’t have to? Unless the job market suddenly improved in a big way and they were afraid I’d jump ship for something better, I don’t think a perm job with benefits is in any way guaranteed. Hence my reluctance to cave too quickly on the rate of pay question.

As for the commute. I took the easiest way in there this am in terms of not wanting to get lost, and it was bumper to bumper on I95. You’d be traveling at highway speed and then all of a sudden traffic comes to a complete halt. Very stressful. Very long 1.25 hours. I really worry that I won’t be able to do that twice a day. Seriously.

I will try other ways to go next time. They want me to start day after Memorial Day. Once I get the offer in writing and paperwork signed, which won’t happen til Monday at earliest, I will give notice at p/t job and can give them a max of 1 week notice. What I’m really hoping is that since this is their slow time I can just leave. I need that time to buy a new car and buy new clothes. Luckily, it is casual dress, but still need a better wardrobe. I’ve been working in my jammies for a long time.

My 2 cats are in for a shock. I feel sad for them becus they are so used to me being here and as it is, they get so bored. That’s why Luther picks on Waldo and bites him too hard. He’s bored silly.

So, as maybe you can tell, I have mixed feelings about all of this becus of the commute, but feel I just have to take the job becus after 3.5 long, dry years, my unemployment benefits run out like, um, next week. I couldn’t have called it any closer!
All this time while I job searched, I never even considered jobs in Stamford becus of the long commute. I know a lot of people do long distance commutes, but I’ve always hated it. It sucks up too much of my personal time and exhausts me and all around lowers my quality of life.

So the plan would be to just suck it up and start the job, try to catch on as quickly as I can and maybe in 6 months, when I feel I’ve demonstrated my value and expertise, approach them about working at home 1 or 2 days a week. Preferably 2.

If they don’t go for that, my days there would probably be numbered. I’d try to stick it out for 1 or 2 years but I hate the whole lifestyle. Couldn’t go much longer. (I’m honestly not even sure I can do their style of writing. It’s much more abbreviated than what I’ve done.) Pithy product descriptions instead of magazine articles or sales brochures. Very different. And the quality of their writing there is already very good, so I’d have to work even harder to add value.

In the meantime, I already scheduled a test drive at local Ford dealer to drive a Ford Fiesta Saturday. May also test drive Hyundai Elantra and Honda Civic. Will probably go new again. I think I’m entitled since the car I drive now is 14 years old. I will sell a bunch of mutual funds tonight and the money will be in my checking account in 3 or 4 days. After I decide from the test drives which model I want, I’ll call all local dealers and ask for their very best price. I want to avoid haggling and will just go with the lowest bid.

My head is spinning. My lifestyle is really going to change drastically. I hope it’s worth it. Terrible to say that after 3 years and 8 months of p/t or underemployment and drastically scaling back my lifestyle, but I don’t know. Don’t know if anyone else goes through this kind of angst in this kind of situation.

I’m glad I didn’t do the poll worker thing today because it wound up being a pretty busy (and productive) day.

And I'm glad I stopped using that nasal spray that was making me feel so drowsy/groggy. I guess that means I'll need to proceed with the bronco provocation test next week to rule out asthma, becus I can't say the nasal spray, meant for people with post nasal drip, did much of anything to alleviate my cough.

But getting back to the productive day:

I spent all morning pulling my portfolio together for the Thursday job interview. Having worked all my life as a writer, I have a ton of writing samples, and I like to tailor my portfolio to the job. It’s something I can do because I’ve written soooo much stuff and in fact I have 3 file cabinets of writing samples in the attic! So I think about what kind of writer they’re looking for: business to business or business to client, retail, corporate, what field/subject matter, long form/short form, etc.

Also, as it turned out, I was finally able to connect with a realtor I was playing phone tag with for well over a month. Or shall we say, he wasn’t really trying to make himself available. Anyway, I got what info I needed from him and wrote up my thing, so that was good to clear my plate.

I also mowed the lawn, or did 40 minutes worth of mowing, which is about as long as the battery will last between charges. Tomorrow morning before I go to work (at 1 pm) I hope to wrap up the mowing.

My British neighbor also stopped by to pick up some heavy logs that have sat in my driveway since Hurricane Sandy. He’s been loading 4 or 5 at a time in his truck and taking them back to his house to burn for me in a big fire pit they have. How nice is that? The wood can’t be burned in a fireplace, as it’s pine, and it’s way too large to chip, unfortunately. It was a bit of a barter situation but I think I got the better end of the deal, as all I did for him was summarize some research I did on how to sell stuff on Amazon.

Once, a few years ago, before he had the fire pit, he was burning his own wood and the grass was very dry and caught on fire. The burning grass caused a TREE to catch on fire and apparently, the flames could be seen from the road. His house is set up on a hill, way back. So someone called the fire dept. It was at night and I remember the fire dept. was shining big spotlights up at my house and around here. I had no idea why at the time as I didn’t know about the fire.

My neighbor was burning the wood at night becus you’re supposed to get a permit if you want to burn a fire and he was trying to avoid that. Maybe not the smartest thing in the world. The fire dept. never did figure out where the fire was, becus my neighbor’s son was yelling at his dad about the fire and they were able to douse the tree with water from a nearby pond he built. It’s a good thing, becus he would have had to pay a fine plus cost of having 3 fire trucks come out.

He’s the laid off toy designer. He is working with the Chinese to start his own business. He conceives and designs, the Chinese will manufacture the products. It could be extremely lucrative. Anyway, their house is finally ready to go on market next week and he gets bored around the house so he’s been coming down to chit chat every once in a while. Since he has to stay away from home while the realtor open house is going on next week, he offered to come over and use his chainsaw to cut up a pile of pine branches that fell in another location of my yard and then use those branches to help get the bigger logs to catch on fire.

I keep telling him he doesn’t have to do all this, but he seems to want to help. I had gotten an estimate from a guy on what it would cost to chip just that one pile I mentioned. Since he didn’t OWN a wood chipper, he said the cost to rent one for a day is $350, so it would cost quite a bit more than that to have them do it. Way more than I wanted to spend. So maybe my neighbor and I will do it together. I’m just a little worried about ticks, cus it’s in a brushy area. I had wanted to invite him for lunch when he comes by next week to do it, but I sort of would rather not have him come in the house after working in the tick-infested brushy areas but I don’t think I can tell him that. He doesn’t think it’s a big deal. Maybe he’s immune, who knows? If I could get him to eat lunch in my house BEFORE we do the work, that would be good, but I’m guessing it’ll wind up being the other way around.

Last night I was just randomly looking at my gray hair in the mirror when I saw something black and I said OMG, could that be a tick? And it was. When I tried to brush it out of my hair with my hand, it really clung to my scalp but I don't think it was "attached." It takes 24 to 48 hours for them to burrow in and be capable of transmitting the virus. Anyway, it was DISGUSTING to find that thing. I flushed it down the toilet. Creeped me out as I HADN'T done much yardwork that day, only mowed the lawn. Every once in a while when I mow, a small tree branch may brush against me, and I remember that happening with a tree branch touching my head once or twice. Must've been how i got the tick in my head cus i wear boots and often spray them with DEET.

I just colored my hair, in preparation for the job interview. I still have more mental prep to do, but the portfolio is done. I can do it tomorrow night.
I also ran out to vote in the town budget today and stopped to deposit some checks at the bank. I watered my many potted plants and sprayed some poison ivy I saw.

So frustrating…yet another instance of Saving Advice eating my entry.

Short version here…..

Lo and behold, my recruiter friend somehow managed to get me an interview with this employer I was telling you about this Thursday. It’s an online retailer specializing in high end home furnishings and furniture. Retail. I’ve always worked in a corporate or journalism-type environment. But somehow he did it.
Frankly, while I appreciate fine design, I know nothing about it, so I really don’t feel qualified. And in this high unemployment environment, most employers can still demand a near perfect match for jobs they seek to fill.

The pay would be great…$35/hr. It’s a full-time job, but a contract job. They already turned down several people the recruiter referred to them. Term is sort of unclear. I think at least through the summer. My friend emphasized more than once the possibility of it morphing into a perm job, but of course many recruiters routinely say that to entice job candidates when there’s really no suggestion of that being the case. Just a hunch on my part.

But since the recruiter is a friend of mine that I worked side by side with for nearly two years in 2008-2009, I don’t think he’d feed me a line if it weren’t true.

The biggest downside right now is the commute. One hour and considerably more in traffic. Funny thing is I will only need to travel on a total of 3 roads to get there: there’s highway #1 (a traffic-clogged 2-lane highway), then the Interstate (also notoriously traffic-clogged most of the time) and then the employer’s road, right off the highway.

I noticed they list their “studio” hours as being 10 to 6. Many employees in this city and in Hartford stagger their work hours to relieve some of the congestion on the main highways. It would also be great for me since I wouldn’t have to stagger out of bed at some unearthly hour. It would be so civilized, even if that meant I got home that much later at night.

If I got an offer for the contract job, I would quit my p/t proofreading job which I started in November. Even though it might not last beyond the summer, it’s a risk I’m prepared to take. I mean, we’re talking the difference between $1400 a week and $240. If nothing else, I believe it would also reset the clock for COBRA and allow me to get my health insurance that way through year’s end, until I started up with a new healthcare exchange via Obamacare. Right now, my COBRA is due to end June 30, at which time I’ll have to go on the state’s last resort plan and shell out even more per month than I’m paying now.

I wonder if my immediate manager has guessed that I’ve been doing a few job interviews here and there when I told her I’d be in late due to an “appointment” I had.

Another thing I'd like to do if I got this job is go ahead and buy that new car I've been thinking about. It's a lot of driving to do with an old car. But there probably won't be time to do it beforehand. Sounds like they'd want a fast start.

I had to cover up all my lettuce, peas and tomato plants in the garden as we’re expecting widespread frost tonight. I used an assortment of plastic sheets, buckets and plastic pots to do it. Kind of a big pain. I hope the many flowering shrubs around here weather the night ok.

I re-erected the bluebird box today in a new location after having taken it down when some undesirable English sparrows began nest-building. I hope they have since moved on and can lure the bluebirds back. It’s in a new location in the front yard that’s not quite so close to brushy, overgrown areas, which is good, but I can’t monitor the box from the front stoop, which is not so good. I’ll need to keep an eye on it to see who shows interest.

Well, for the past 1.5 weeks or so I've been taking this nasal spray medication (twice daily) to see if it improves my cough, which doc thinks is probably silent post nasal drip. I can't honestly tell any difference but i'm beginning to wonder if this is one of those situations where the meds are worse than the symptoms. I cough maybe an average of once an hour, which isn't terrible-terrible. But these meds really seem to make me groggy in the morning and sort of in a brain fog all day. Like, I can function, but I just feel like I'm struggling to focus and stay sharp becus of the meds, and I don't like it.

I had WANTED to give it some more time, only to be able to diagnose my cough issue decisively, but now with this job interview coming up on Thursday, I think I'm going to stop taking it now. I need to be alert for that interview.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you. We've already wrapped up our Mother's Day luncheon, hosted by me.

I made a cold salad with edamame, grape tomatoes, corn and black beans with a dressing and red onion as well as my cheddar/cauliflower soup and a homemade chocolate pudding for dessert (NOT out of a box). My sister brought her salad using violet flowers and kale flowers. Rather crunchy. She also brought a dessert made of chia seeds and coconut. I also had an appetizer of pear slices dipped in butter/cheddar and then ground up pecans. The pecans didn't quite stick to the pear slices, so i probably would make this again.

My sister brought a dozen eggs each for me and my mom, and she offered to cut down a mostly dead apple tree and dogwood for me. (She wants the firewood.) But maybe not til fall.

I spent most of the weekend creating a new Facebook page for myself as well as a Pinterest account. I did this not becus I have a real interest in doing so, or the time, but because I've known for a long time I need it for job prospects. Aside from the blogging, it might appear to prospective employers that I have no particular social media skills, and so many employers want a write who can do that stuff too.

So I spent hours setting up basic pages for myself which will become more robust over time with pithy comments and so on. I am not using my real name on them but will list them on my resume. The Facebook account will be thematic, centered around my interests in gardening. That's a nice, non-controversial and non-personal way to go with Facebook. The account I used to have was possibly hacked into as I could no longer log in and it kept asking me if I was "Simba." So I shut that down.

This afternoon is free and I'm thinking I should continue weeding and prepping my vegetable garden. I need to plant zucchini.

My sister told me she was a garden nursery recently where she noticed a sign that said they would come and dig up any unwanted pachysandra and tidy up the place when they left. Possibly even pay for it. I have OODLES of pachysandra here I'd love to get rid of so this place could be heaven-sent. I am calling them tomorrow!!!!!!

I have long said that May is the prettiest month here, and 2013 is no exception.


My 6 white dogwood are in bloom now. This one is just outside my office window. In fact, I leaned out the window from inside to snap it! There is something so ethereal about dogwood flowers...maybe because the trunk of the tree is so slender that it often appears to me as if the flowers are floating, suspended in the air.


This is the view south. Most of what you see here, actually, is my neighbor's property. There's a stone wall that divides our property but it's pretty much shrouded in green already. AT the very bottom of the photo you can see a sliver of my driveway. I also shot this out my office window. The view is made possible due to the fact that a humongous white pine that previously blocked part of this view came down during Hurricane Sandy. (I'm still cleaning up the remnant logs from that.)

I got an email today from an address I didn't recognize, yet this person seemed to know a fair amount about me. But the email wasn't signed. It was a job offer. I was pretty wary about it until I checked the phone number from NYC online and realized it was a friend of mine, a fellow writer and someone I worked very closely with for 2 years at my last full-time job.

He was laid off a year before me and eventually found new work as a recruiter. He's very much a people person and a really great, all-round guy. Truth be told, we flirted a fair amount and I dare say if he weren't married...

Rest assured, nothing happened beyond friendly conversation. We shared identical jobs and sat next to each other, so of course we talked a lot. Sometimes, we even escaped the office and took a half-hour drive without telling anyone! He was very unhappy there, I think partly because he always struggled as a writer and I don't think that's his natural vocation.

Anyway, we lost touch during the past few years, but he was reaching out to me now with a contract job that could turn f/t. I think it's f/t and he said it would "only" pay $35/hr. I sent him my resume and some links to writing samples and he was very enthusiastic about it, saying he "had a good feeling" about it. I personally think it's a long shot becus the job (writing) is in a field I have no experience in: retail, modern furniture and accessories. However, I have done a lot of copywriting about high end real estate and design/construction trends, so who knows. The other problem is that it would be a very long drive, over an hour, and that's what most concerns me.

However, at this point, I may just go for it, even if I don't stay forever. Maybe I could just stick it out for a year or two. I need to get out of this financial rut I've been in. There's always the possibility of a partial work-at-home deal.

So guess we'll see if I get any feedback early next week. I'm afraid to even dwell on it too much becus as I said, I don't feel I'd be the very best candidate they could likely find for this particular job.

On Tuesday I will be working 5:15 am to 8 pm as a poll worker. $175 cash for a very long day, but I do also enjoy seeing all my fellow townspeople file in to cast their vote on the town budget. It's old-fashioned New England politics which I am so very familiar with. For years I covered things like this as a news reporter. I guess I know a fair number of people here in town, even though it usually seems like I don't.

I just finished planning the Mother's Day menu, which will be here at my house. Just a lunch, not dinner. My sister will bring a salad and dessert, while I've decided on an appetizer of pear slices dipped in a mix of cheddar cheese/butter/lemon juice and then finely ground pecans. The main course will be creamy cheddar-cauliflower soup and a cold salad consisting of corn, black beans, grape tomatoes and edamame beans with a dressing. I'll make an easy dessert, too, a real chocolate pudding using dried cocoa, almond milk and bittersweet chips.

I came across mention of a book recently, a first-person account of a woman and her therapy dog who visit nursing home patients. I looked it up on Amazon and just had to get it for my dad's longtime ex girlfriend, who has two dachshunds which are certified therapy dogs. They visit the local hospital, patients in their homes and hospice patients.

Then Amazon's clever marketing reeled me in as I saw on the order page they also had a book written by a man who owns 3 dachshunds, and the "life lessons" he's learned from them.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't do something like this since K. is an avid reader and who knows if she already had read the books, but both of these are new releases due out in mid-May. I could have waited til Christmas (I missed her birthday back in March) but again, I didn't want to run the risk of her getting the book before I had a chance to ship them to her.

K. was a nurse for many years, before she retired, and she's very devoted to the whole therapy dog thing. It's a big part of her life. And, she is a dachshund lover. So how could i NOT get these books for her?

To pay for the books, I used up most of this month's Amazon gift cards I earned for my participation in 2 online forums. I know she will enjoy them both.

The saga with the range hood continues. As you may remember reading here earlier, it was supposed to be installed yesterday, but it came out of the box with a big dent on the front, so they had to reorder. He had told me if it rains, I can do it tomorrow (today) morning, which would have been perfect as I don't have to return to work until 1 pm. But the shipment hasn't arrived as anticipated so now we're shooting for tomorrow morning, 9ish, which means I have to arrive late for work. I hope to stay after 5 to make up the lost time. If...and that's a big if, the guy gets here on time, it will only take 15 minutes to install. He already took the old one away, so now I have a big hole in the wall to the outside. It has only a flimsy vent to keep out the bugs, plus a towel I stuffed in there.

I have someone coming over in a little while to give me a price on fence repair/replacement. Hopefully it will be more the former than the latter, as I don't really want to spend more than $100 or so but I may have to. Plastic fence would be nice, but that would be even more money, I'm sure.

It's been raining intermittently, which is very good. We so needed the rain here.

On my way home from work I'll stop by Stop & Shop to pick up organic green pepper and celery so I can make my pasta/sun-dried tomato salad to serve as lunches for the rest of the week.

I was running around like a crazy woman trying to get stuff done before the rain comes, late tonight. It's supposed to linger for a while.

I finished mowing the lawn. Check. I planted cucumbers, yellow squash, sunflowers and soybeans. Check. I ran to Home Depot to pick up my new mower blade and also 3 tomato plants. Check. Planted the tomato plants, put newspaper down around them and then put the lawn clippings over the newspaper. This is important, since without mulch, dirt splashes up on tomato plant leaves and causes that black spot fungus to spread, I put a healthy dose of ground up eggshells in the bottom of each hole, but I forgot to put a tinfoil collar around each stem to protect against cutworms.

The only thing i forgot to plant was zucchini squash.

The guy came to install the range hood. He got the old one out, brought the new one in, still in its box. As we took it out of the box, we saw there was a big dent in the front of it. Damn. No range hood today. However, he called into the office and that guy reordered the hood and should get it tomorrow morning. Since it will be raining they won't be installed the central air, which means he should be able to come and install my range hood. Cross my fingers.

I went to the dump and got more wood chips. The pile is really dwindling. Didn't have time to spread it.


This corkscrew willow is finally starting to take off. Its growth habit is very similar to a Harry Lauder's Walking stick except its a willow.


This is a shrub variety of a magnolia.


The crabapple are in bloom. I have three.




These are actually the flowers of two different crabapples that are side by side.


Tiny clusters of flowers are starting to form on the lily of the valley.


My peonies are also coming along, though no flowers yet.


I'm trying to grow lettuce in pots this year, as well as in the garden.


The strawberry plants I potted up two years ago finally have tiny flowers. Could I possibly get a berry before the birds??? Maybe so, since I keep these pots in my driveway. Have to watch out for chipmunks though.

The “good news, sorta” refers to an email I got today from the woman I share my job with, that our employer has decided to keep us both working 20 hours a week through the summer.

The original plan, as spelled out to us when we were hired, was that we’d be furloughed for the summer months and brought back in the fall.

So at least my work hours/income will be reliable; I’d been wondering what was going to happen when this particular source of income dried up in the summer, especially given that my unemployment is due to finally end in 2 weeks time. I guess they discovered they get an awful lot done with two $12 an hour people.

Do you sense the ambivalence? The job is a snooze and bores me silly. And my immediate manager annoys me. But it’s helping me get by. (Never had I thought I’d be here this long…about 5 months now….but anyway….)
Speaking of income…

I spent the bulk of today at Yale-New Haven Hospital to take part in a clinical study looking at gender differences in how people respond to food cravings. I had to be there at 7:30 am without having had breakfast. Basically, they starved me and then put a bunch of tempting food in front of me while I was very, very hungry, didn’t let me distract myself by watching TV or doing anything, and then wanted to see if I could keep from eating when given a financial incentive to do so (of course I could, I’m a Saving Advicer!)

They were drawing my blood every 15 minutes for a 2 hour period and had me answering questionnaires about how I felt. It was very boring. They said my blood pressure was very good, and in fact it kept dropping while I was there. But I earned $145, plus they paid for my parking, which is a real pain in New Haven. Between that and the one-way streets, I keep forgetting why I don’t like driving in there.

While I was there, I remembered how the last time I stayed at Yale New Haven…a world-class teaching hospital, mind you…I was there for surgery and wound up with an infection that extended my stay. Of the dozens of nurses, aides and other assorted personnel who made their way to my room, I remember that only ONE washed her hands at the little sink just inside my door, despite prominent signage there that all should do so.

So this time I’d forgotten to check to see if my nurse was following protocol. When she left for lunch, a 2nd nurse took over, and this time I made a point to see what she’d do. The door to my room was closed. I noticed when she walked in that she was wearing gloves and she came over with her little tray and prepared to take my blood. I said, aren’t you supposed to put on a sterile set of gloves before taking my blood? She said, oh, I just did. I said yeah, but you had to touch the doorknob. She didn’t say anything but she didn’t look happy. She complied. I explained how I’d gotten an infection years earlier at Yale-New Haven and so I was probably more aware of the problem than many. She said, “Understood.” But I mean, c’mon! Patients should not have to tell nurses why it’s important.

After that, I made a point to check what she did, and then what my original nurse did when she returned from lunch. Each time, they put on their new gloves in front of me, so I was satisfied. (Although one time the first nurse put on the gloves and then proceeded to write something with a pen with the gloved hand, which I’m sure contaminated the glove.) You can’t be too careful! Especially when I remember reading in the fine print of what I had to sign to be in this study was that if I was in any way injured during the study that they would treat me, but that the cost would be on me!

When I got home from Yale, I got a call from the registrar of voters, who wants me to work next Tuesday in our town’s second budget vote. I wouldn’t have bothered to call her if she hadn’t called me, becus this is another thing I’m ambivalent about. Because it’s an incredibly long, 14-hour day, from 5:15 am to 8 pm at night! But again, I hate to pass up a chance to make money. From this I’ll make $175. It comes out to about $12 an hour.

I mowed the lawn this afternoon, knowing we’re in for a period of rainy weather (much needed) starting on Wednesday, after which everything around here will really start sprouting.

Tomorrow’s chores mostly revolve around yard work. I need to pick up a new mower blade at Home Depot. Need to finish mowing, and then do weed-whacking. Need to finish planting the rest of my veggie seeds and run to Agway to get tomato plants. Would be very good to get everything in before the soaking rains expected for rest of week. I’m also supposed to have my new range hood installed, though I’m annoyed they haven’t called to let me know when tomorrow. So I’ll have to call them. And work the rest of my schedule around it. Want to get more free mulch from dump while supplies last.

So, since my visit to the pulmonologist, I've been doing a prescription nasal spray twice daily and a real adventure: a nasal wash. AKA, a netti pot, or in my case, a netti bottle.

It sure is a strange sensation to squirt 8 oz. of saline water up your nostril and have it come out the other nostril! Hope that's not "too much information," but I had never heard of such a thing.

The doc suspects I have post nasal drip (even though I feel nothing), and this is one way of seeing if he's right. If, in less than 3 weeks, the combo spray and wash lessens my cough, then I can feel free to cancel the spirometry test. (I think that's what it is.)

If it's not "silent" post nasal drip, he said, it could be a mild form of asthma.

This could be one of those cases where the treatment is worse than the symptom. Just for the heck of it, I've been keeping a "cough diary" to record how frequently I actually cough, and to see if it lessens over time. I do seem to cough more in the a.m. than p.m., which again would indicate post nasal drip since i guess all that stuff collects overnight.

Despite the wierdness of it all, I prefer the nasal wash becus it's relatively benign, vs the nasal spray which comes with a long laundry list of warnings/possible side effects. However, it's a nuisance to prepare becus you're supposed to use distilled water or absent that, boil water and then let it cool.

I've been watching the hummingbird feeder but still no sign of the hummingbirds' return. The same ones return to the same summer spot year after year, and their absence makes me wonder if they died. Hummers live for a few years in the wild.

I also put out my copper bird bath but I believe the solar pump is kaput. It was always rather fussy and easily clogged. It is lovely when it runs, though. I may get a new one if I can remember/figure out where I got it from.

I planted some more basil today, and the lettuce and peas are coming up, but very tiny. Our frost-free date is not for another 1.5 weeks, but I've check the weather report and there's no sign of nighttime frosts so I think we're home free. Tomorrow I'm going to plant my beans, squash, zucchini, cukes, etc. I may also go to Agway for tomato seedlings.

I made a double batch of berry bread today using frozen organic berries I get from BJs. I saw English sparrows nest-building in my 2nd bluebird box so I chased them away and took down the nest. It needed a good washing anyway. I hope that by keeping it down for up to a week, the sparrows will move on and then I'll try re-erecting the box in a more open area of my front yard. I just don't have that much room, but I think it was too close to a brushy area before, so it always attracted wrens.

I did a bit more mulching today using free mulch I got at the landfill. The yard looks great, but it's very early in the season. I need to get more mulch at one time or make more trips to the landfill, but they're not open again til Tuesday now. Once a week is not cutting it; I'll be mulching til Labor Day at that rate! I can bring home about one wheelbarrow full in my car at one time.

My daffodils are already spent, and the tulips and hyacinths are not far behind. The dogwood (I'm down to 6 now, all white, sadly) and lavender ground phlox are in bloom and the azalea and crab-apple look about to burst open.

Last year I remember reading about how vicious wrens can be, but until today, I hadn't really witnessed it.

First off, I like wrens. These are the common everyday house wren I'm speaking of. They have such a melodic call.

They nest in either or sometimes both of my 2 nest boxes each year, although in recent years, I've had bluebirds who occasionally get to nest in one of them, like last year. I would say 80% of the time its wrens that end up with the boxes and 20% of the time its bluebirds. (Once I had an English sparrow but I took the box down rather than have them nest there.)

I have a decent view of the box in the backyard from my sunroom. I was just out there when I noticed a wren popped inside and kept sticking its head up and out the hole, with a small piece of straw in its bill, which it unceremoniously dumped each time. It was clearly trying to clear out another bird's nest, something that didn't surprise me as I had seen a male bluebird hanging out around that box just yesterday.

However, I know that many male birds begin building more than one nest to entice the female; the female will ultimately choose which one she wants. I figured the bluebirds could still take the box in in the front yard.

Then I saw the wren fly down to the ground below the box and raise its head up and down rapidly in a staccato movement. I saw a flash of blue. I jumped to my feet and ran out to scare it off. But it was too late. The wren had pierced a bluebird egg with its bill. I saw the shell of what must have been a second egg on the ground.

The male bluebird was by minutes later; it must have seen the broken shells on the ground because I heard a distressing, chattering call as it flew away.

I chased the wren away twice more when it returned to the box, but obviously I can't keep that up and if the wren wants to nest there, I guess it will.

Very sad. I have no shortage of wrens around here, but it is a pure pleasure and a privilege to see flashes of brilliant, indigo blue around my yard all summer when the bluebirds are nesting.

As for the front box, I had noticed bluebirds in that area quite early on but I wanted to insert some fine mesh wire on the bottom of the box to prevent a certain kind of flying insect from laying its larvae there. The larvae crawl up and attach themselves to the baby bluebirds' legs and are parasitic, sometimes causing the death of the baby bluebird. The wire mesh prevents the larvae from crawling upward to the nest. When i went to insert the wire mesh, I was surprised to see an already half-built bluebird nest, and I'm afraid I partially destroyed it when I inserted the wire mesh. I haven't seen bluebirds there since. So inadvertently, I may have scared off the bluebirds from that box.

I was thinking of moving the nest in back so its further away from the scrubby, brushy areas that wrens favor, and more in an open area, which bluebirds favor. But there aren't many open areas of my yard where i don't have to mow weekly, so that would represent a disturbance to the bluebirds. And, I'm not sure if there are any more eggs in that box. If so, I don't want to move the box as the bluebirds might not return to it, but as it is, the wren will likely dispatch of it anyway.

I have made this for years. I love lamb, and this is a great recipe. If you try it, let me know how you like it.

The recipe is super easy, and I'm going to give it to you from memory. There are only a few ingredients.

Slice up 2 cups of carrots and 2 onions and saute in olive oil for a few minutes. It's not necessary to brown them.

In the meantime, prepare a pound or so of lamb stew meat, cut up into chunks, with fat removed. Actually, any kind of lamb will do, but the lamb stew chunks you buy at the store are easiest to prepare. Put them in a plastic bag with 2 tablespoons of flour and a tablespoon or so of rosemary, salt and pepper. Shake and turn upside down to distribute the flour and coat all the lamb chunks with the mixture.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the carrot and onion from pan and use a bit more olive oil over medium heat to sear and seal the lamb chunks on each side. This should only take a few minutes.

Add 1.25 cups of chicken stock to the pan and return the carrots/onions. Bring to a boil, then transfer to oven to cook at 325 for 2 hours.

That's pretty much it! It's hard to mess up this recipe and I often adjust it according to what I have on hand as far as quantities.

Well, I thought this could be a mostly relaxing day of yardwork in this fine spring weather we've been having, but...not exactly.

In the morning, I did some miscellaneous yard work. I started laying down the newspaper and then the mulch in one perennial bed.

I decided I should do my mother's housework today. I had plans to vaccum her entire condo, dust and mop the floors, but truth be told, I pooped out after doing the dusting and vacuuming. The vacuuming was quite tiring as I had to keep lifting and moving things out of the way, and I also had to keep bending down to vacuum where the carpeting meets the baseboards. Very dirty. The carpeting is shot, actually but my mother has SO much stuff in there I can't imagine being able to replace that carpeting.

My mom has a show coming up in Litchfield, so 60 pieces are gone and out of her place. I couldn't tell the difference myself. The show lasts 2 months; hopefully she'll sell some art.

After doing the housework, I ran off to a doctor's appointment. A pulmonologist. It's been a bit of an odyssey to try to figure out why I have had this unexplained cough for 3 or 4 years, at least. PCP ruled out lung cancer with some chest x-rays. She also ruled out asthma. Then she referred me to an ENT guy, who after having me do the overnight pH test, ruled out silent acid reflex. The pulmonologist is leaning toward a post-nasal drip issue even though I can't feel any drip at all in my throat. He wants me to try two things, a nasal spray and the equivalent of a netty pot, if anyone knows what that is. Supposedly the 2 together will really clear out your nose and sinuses. Then I have to get a spirometry test done in 3 weeks, unless I see such great improvement with the cough before then, due to the meds; if that happens, then I can cancel the test. I hope I have the discipline to do both meds; the one involves breathing in liquid and doesn't sound so pleasant.

I came home after that and got my lamb stew going in the oven. Then I finished mowing the lawn. Then, because they're warning of frost tonight, I put about a dozen heavy pots of lettuce and annuals back in the garage and covered my tulips with a tarp and covered all my little pea plants and lettuce in the garden with an assortment of pots to protect them from frost.

Hopefully this will be the last time this happens.

Tomorrow it's back to work. On the way there I'll deposit some checks, pick up those meds and collect more free mulch from the landfill.

Yesterday I made good progress wrestling small portions of my yard back from Mother Nature who, if she had her way, would entangle the entire 1.5 acres in a thicket of impenetrable greenery.

The birds would love it; I don't.

I have an elongated island in my front yard that contains exactly this: 5 peonies, 1 birch tree, 1 wiegela, 1 butterfly bush, 1 beauty berry and an assortment of smaller perennials including sedums, blue milkweed, lamb's ears and clematis. Right behind the island I planted some gray (silky) dogwood and a nannyberry.

All great plants if you want either color or berries (for the birds). However, the gray dogwood was a poor choice for a suburban yard. Once it's settled in, it happily spreads by underground roots. And so it began doing its thing. Long, thin sprouts began popping up all over the island bed. It's attempting to colonize the whole island. So I had to make a hard choice...I sawed down the tree and pulled up a bunch of those seedlings. Those seedlings are all attached to long underground roots, so I'm sure I haven't gotten them all and they will return, but I had to make a decision about the source of my problem: the mother plant.

It's all about trying to turn a high-maintenance yard into a low-maintenance yard. I brought this on myself.

I also hacked away at a large burning bush I hadn't had time to cut back last fall. Everything was getting so bushy and overgrown in this island bed and I need to be able to mow around it. I also pulled out a large bittersweet (invasive) vine that had ensconced itself in the wiegela, and I also see a large bramble shoot in there that I somehow need to get to without hacking away at the wiegela.


These docile-looking tulips often distract me from the more menacing plants that call this place home.



If ticks didn't exist, I'd just lean in there and let my head and body be brushed by assorted branches as I pulled the thing out, but having had Lyme disease 3x now, I am extremely careful about doing that sort of thing. There is deer poop all over my yard, and deer (as well as mice) are primary carriers of deer ticks that carry Lyme disease.

Yesterday I also saw a woodchuck dive into a burrow close to the house. I have to dump cat litter in there again. I haven't been able to properly bury that burrow because of its location at the corner of my rectangular picket fence, where all the gooseberry with thorns grow. Sigh.

The clock is ticking. Every day, plants in my yard grow another 12 inches. There is no such thing as leisurely, civilized gardening around here. It's a war I'll lose if I miss a single day's opportunity to weed, hack down and mulch heavily. AT least that's how it feels...and it's only April!

Now is the very best time to get a handle on some of this stuff because it's not brutally hot, insects are not a problem and you can better see what your situation is when not everything is leafed out yet.

I have a relatively open schedule today. I want to get a haircut with a $6 coup at Great Clips, but after that, I'm free. I will walk out there and Do Something. I have only to look around and dozens of jobs present themselves to me.

At least yesterday I got the rest of my lettuce and peas planted, as well as some basil.

I decided to wrap up my income & expense statement for the month of April a few days early. I can see it was a banner month, financially speaking.

Despite spending $834 on a nice new computer and an unexpected $275 on new brake pads and calipers, I was still able to come out ahead by $1200.

Not an easy thing when you're working part-time, but I had a great month for freelance income ($1191), plus all my other little sources of income, like credit card bonus rewards ($111) and various product/medical studies plus some great refunds or gift cards ($40 from Dell and a $50 refund from Puritan Pride for some returned vitamins) really added up.

I was especially happy with the $40 gift card from Dell, which came with an additional 5% off, simply for calling and asking them if there was a way to lower the cost of the computer I was ready to purchase online.

I was also impressed that my return of vitamins to Puritan Pride even included several bottles I had already opened. Still got the refund on them!

It's a beautiful day out there. I may need to do the inaugural mowing of the season. I was sort of waiting til I heard one of my neighbors mowing, but heck, the grass looks like it's getting high.

On the list of things to do: take apart my old computer tower and remove 1) the newly added memory, if I can find it and 2) the hard drive, so I can smash it to bits with my hammer before recycling at the dump.

I also need to wade into the fenced garden. Have to get the weed whacker charged up.

I was able to find a different appliance place to install a new range hood for just $10 more than the first guy. But I have to wait another week for them to come. I decided to call the first place to complain about the no-show guy, and spoke to someone there who said it sounded like he was doing the job on his own time, on the side. I didn't know that and wasn't given a choice in the matter. I'm not sure it mattered. The person I spoke with had no-show guy call me later. He was very nice on the phone and said he thought we agreed he was coming THIS Wednesday, not last Wednesday. I choose to believe him. I think it was an honest mistake by both of us....a lesson learned for next time, be sure you are both clear on the agreed upon date. It could save a lot of hassle.

I also want to get a handyman guy I know in town to come over and repair/replace my picket fenced garden, the one that's all overgrown. It also occurred to me that maybe one way to get rid of all the vinca and weeds is to rent a rototiller; it would make pulling up all that vinca by the roots so much easier. Still a job, but....

This past week I had called around for prices on a replacement range hood. Nothing fancy. I got what I thought was a good price on it: $89 for the product itself and another $60 for installation.

"Tony" and I scheduled a time last week on the morning of one of my days off for him to come and do the installation. He called the night before and said he couldn't make it so we rescheduled for the following day at 6 pm. He said "Perfect, I get off work at 6 so I'll be right over after that."

That was Wednesday night. Do you know he never showed up? I keep looking out the window, rushed through dinner so he wouldn't catch me in the middle of it. Wondering what happened. Called the office number I had for him but it just rang and rang; not even a recording.

He never showed, and worse, in my opinion, is that he never even had the courtesy to call to say he wasn't coming.

I figured MAYBE the next day he'd call with some sort of explanation, but nope. Haven't heard a peep from him! Very disrespectful, IMO.

So Thursday morning I initiated a "dispute" with my credit card company and told them I wanted the $80 charge cancelled since I never received the product and in fact the guy has gone AWOL. I received a notice this a.m. from the credit card company that the charge has been cancelled.

So that's that. Now I'll have to start all over again to try to find a reasonably priced installation. The one place I'd called years ago wanted $150. I'm just surprised at the actions of this other guy since the company, family owned, has been around for years. The guy I placed the order with over the phone was the same guy who was going to install it. Anyway, good riddance.

I'm also thinking of finally getting around to having some fencing fixed/repaired. It's just a waist-high, wood picket fence that is rotting in places.


Here's a portion of it.

I don't think it requires total replacement, just portions of it. It comes in 6 foot lengths. I don't know what kind of wood it is, I'm guessing pine (?) but it's a nice, weathered gray, and of course the new wood needs to weather gray as well or it will look ridiculous. I may have Bill the handyman do it. If I can get away with spending $100 or less, I'll be satisfied.

Looks like we had a frost last night. I hope it hasn't zapped my many tulips. This is the FIRST year in 18 years that I've had them (!) because last summer I cut down some overgrown shrubs near the front entrance and in their place, the only place in the yard protected from deer, I planted tulips.




Each year, these hyacinths seem a little bigger.

I posted a bunch of perennials and my hypertufa for sale on Craig's List 4 or 5 days ago. So far, no takers. It may be a bit early.

I got a coupon for a $6 haircut at Great Clips in my news circulars the other day. Perfect timing, I really need a haircut.

My co-worker and I went in and talked to HR about getting on the company health plan, as part-timers. I doubt anything will come of it. They could replace us in a heartbeat but they'd have to retrain. Nothing lost, I suppose.

The same woman (my coworker) brought in her adorable English springer spaniel puppy, just 9 weeks old, to work yesterday. Really, really adorable.

I realized I have 2 Home Depot gift cards worth about $36. I had been saving these solely for vegetable seedlings, mainly tomato plants, but I AM tempted to use some of it for 3 small perennials in the area I recently dug up invasive vinca. There's plenty of perennials around my yard I could divide, but I feel like I've done that many times over with the same plants, and I'd like something new.

This weekend I also need to plant the rest of my lettuce, put out the hummer water (the males arrive first, as early as late April, according to my records) and in desperation, I will try painting the stubs of awful invasive brambles too hard to dig out when growing in pachysandra with RoundUp. And a haircut is definitely in the plans.

It's 7:24 am and I just have one more day of work to get through. It's so boring and unfulfilling and mind-numbing. Hate it.

Two of my other co-workers were telling me they found what appeared to be a large bear print on a walking trail right behind our office building. Yesterday I walked and looked for the print and found it; they'd marked it with a stick and day-glo tape. It did indeed look like a bear print, either that or a very large dog with very long claws. That's why I think it's the former. I must admit to feeling a bit squeamish after inspecting that print, and finding 4 or 5 other more faded prints nearby. I think bears are more active at dusk, but who knows? These trails can be completely deserted when I walk there. They're not at all far from civilization, and in fact, I can walk briskly to the left (before it narrows into a much smaller trail) or to the right trail and back to work in exactly 30 minutes, my lunch time.

There are periodically photos in the local paper of assorted wildlife including black bears, wolverine and bobcats.

More common are coyotes, wild turkeys, foxes, woodchucks, possums, skunks and deer.

I rarely see rabbits because there are too many cats roaming around.

Every once in a GREAT while there's an errant moose that wandered down from Canada. There was just one time I saw a pheasant in my yard.

I saw a coyote pup in my yard 2 summers ago eating apples fallen from the tree and there was a large, unidentified cat-like creature (pointed, feline face and long tail, solid tan coat) I saw in my backyard before I startled it and it ran into the woods.

And once, my neighbor up the hill behind me saw a human being laying down on their lawn, sleeping!! She called the cops, then called me to warn me. He moved on before the police found him, but that was mighty strange as my neighbor's place is set well into the woods, up the hill and off the road. We don't have homeless people around here that I know; this is a small town. Maybe he was drunk. or something.

This photo I took today makes me laugh. It appears as though I have a whole army of daffodils marching down this hillside. I DO have a lot of daffodils, but not as many as this picture would seem to indicate.

As soon as the growing season really sets in, I'm in a kind of losing battle trying to stay on top of my yard. I need to wrestle control of a large, fenced in garden that unfortunately is being taken over by invasives like vinca, pachysandra and even wild oats (which I planted) is making aggressive inroads where it's not wanted.

This afternoon I spent some time and with considerable effort, managed to clear out the vinca from a very small garden bed on the outside of the fenced garden, where I had pretty black-eyed susies as well as strawberries (which I have never enjoyed because whatever little berries they produce are quickly consumed by chipmunks or birds). I felt forced to pull everything out becus that's the only way to also eradicate the vinca.

Not sure what to plant in its place, a sunny spot that gets afternoon sun. I have so many sedums, so while that would be a good choice, I have enough of them already. It needs to be deer-resistant and I don't want to spend money so it needs to be a division from something I already have! It needs to be tidy and not too bushy cus I have a fairly narrow walkway beside it.

It occurred to me that 4 little boxwoods would look nice there, but of course I'd have to buy them.

I have so much more vinca inside the fenced area. I am determined to get a handle on this unruly patch of land this year, even if it means using the mower in there over the vinca and pachysandra and the wild bramble shoots and....everything except the blueberry bushes. I also still have a single dwarf cherry in there I'm not sure if I'll keep.


The dwarf cherry is not really that small... It's a magnet for bees and readily proliferates, thanks to birds that eat the cherries and drop them all over the yard. This is the time of year I realize I have little cherry trees all over the place; you can only tell now cus they have these pretty little pink flowers but otherwise blend into the landscape and become invisible.

Right now it looks quite pretty in bloom but with its branches, it's hard to keep the area weed-free. I also have a large mulberry tree in there and an assortment of perennials.

When I bought this place 18 years ago, the area was all nice green grass, but with my grand plans and visions of a cute little garden with brick walkway and fountain etc, I tore it all up. Now it's a huge effort to maintain and I never have the time with all the rest of my yard demanding my attention. How I would love to have it all planted in grass again that I would only have to mow to keep it looking tidy.

The guy who was supposed to come and install my new range hood tomorrow a.m. had to reschedule, which may be just as well since tomorrow is going to be a fairly busy day. I have to drive out to Yale to do the first in a two-part study on food and self-control ($145) and after that I have a dinner meeting to attend. I've invited my friend R. to join me as he lives nearby.

In the a.m. I'll be going to the dump with a few more logs (the bane of my existence, will I ever get rid of them all?) and I want to get a few containers of free mulch, which helps keep the weeds down in my many perennial beds. It's essential, in fact, and with some Preen, it will cut down on backbreaking labor.

I got my new Chase Sapphire card today. The reward on this one, $100, is more modest than others, but the spending target, $500, is also fairly easy to hit.

I spent the better part of a day getting my new computer set up.

First, I transferred all my Word files and thanks, Frugal Texan, for the tips about bookmarking. I did set up Diigo, but there was so much to read and I was feeling impatient about getting the computer up and running, so I'm sure there was an easier way for me to transfer those bookmarks (with Diigo). Anyway, I think I got most of them.

That was on Friday night. Yesterday morning, I set up the computer itself. I always feel high anxiety when I have to do this, but it went pretty painlessly, although Dell has just too many instructions for everything. If I read everything, I'd still be reading now.

At first I freaked cus when I checked to see that all my Word documents were on the pre-loaded Word. When I clicked on the folders, they were empty. Oh no. What a pain it would be to have to hook up the old computer again. But luckily, I realized that I couldn't see the documents because I hadn't "activated" the pre-loaded software with my product key. Once I did that, they magically appeared.

I did fail to transfer over many photographs; however, they're still on my camera card so right now, I just don't feel like it. There was still so much organizing to do and putting docs and bookmarks back in folders and so on.

But I am happy with my new speakers and 21.5 inch monitor. The one I use at work is 24 inches, and if I had known how much I'd like using it, I would have spent the extra money for those extra few inches. But still, it's nice, big enough that I can have 2 docs up on the screen at the same time, which I could never do before with my older square screen.

I "test-watched" "Pickers" on Hulu last night just to make sure I could, and it ran beautifully. You don't know what crap I'd been putting up with the every 5 minutes screen freeze-ups. Maybe it was the motherboard, really don't know.

My only beef with this new computer is that the document preview function in Word is still not working! When you go to open a document, it's very, very handy to be able to see portions of that document in the preview panel before you click to open, like when you're searching for something specific, it saves you the trouble of having to open everything up.

When I feel an unusual amount of patience, I will call Dell and ask them why that stupid thing doesn't work with their system. I remember reading of a way around it but it wasn't that convenient. I think when you go to attach a doc, rather than simply open it, that you can read it. Oh well.

I am getting a new range hood for over the stove on Tuesday. It's nothing grand, like those stove to ceiling hoods I've seen. This one's a Broan and will be a near exact replacement for what I've got now. The one I have is SUCH an eyesore, all rusty and so on. It works fine, though I rarely use it. I just want something that looks "presentable" for when I sell this place.

I would have done it years ago but when i called a different place, their installation charge was something like $125, which was more than the actual cost of the hood. The guy who's coming Tuesday is only charging $60.

I have done such a good job of conditioning myself not to spend money, but I think I need to push past my reluctance to do so to get certain things around here done. It would be fine if I didn't plan to sell, but since I'd like to, there's nothing standing in my way except a ton of deferred maintenance around here.

Looks like another bright and sunny day here. Yesterday I managed to cut back all the dead sedum stalks as well as some butterfly bush. I'd like to plant some peas and lettuce in the garden today.

Also would like to vacuum out my car, badly needed.

I had to cover up all my tulips last night with plastic buckets and a tarp because it was going down to 33 and I didn't want to risk them getting zapped days before their bloom. It's the first year i 18 years I've been able to grow tulips. They're planted in the ONE spot where deer aren't likely to go, close to the foundation near a landing and stairs. I can also block it off pretty well each night with a lawn chair I have on the landing.

Can't wait to see them bloom.

Ho-hum.

Another Thursday, the part of my life I wish would go faster, when I work at my boring proofreading job. My time, and my life, are my own from Saturday through Wednesday mornings.

Next Tuesday my new computer should be delivered. I just hope it works flawlessly, is easy to set up and is everything I hoped for. I can't get rid of the one I have a day too soon. But I'm wondering if I should try to remove the added memory my computer repair guy installed? Thing is, i have no idea what it looks like, and if he did it of course he'd charge me. So maybe I'll just bag it.

I remember last time I changed computers I lost all of my many bookmarked websites, so I want to save those too. Does anyone know of an easy way to do that other than painstakingly writing down each URL? I don't think a cut and paste will work with bookmarks.

I've more or less decided to delay further thought of a new car until the end of the year. Winter is when I've purchased new cars in the past and I think dealers are more eager to make a deal with you during a time that's usually very slow.

While I have the money, buying a new car is not just about the purchase price. It's also about the insurance, various state fees and of course our lovely car tax here in Connecticut. Barring further high cost repairs or getting stuck on the road, I will hang on to the Honda a while longer. It runs perfectly fine; it's just the unforeseen parts that go without warning that concerns me.

Still waiting for a check from a product study i did in early April, but it looks like April will be a good income month, despite higher-than-average expenses related to car repairs, healthcare and the new computer.

On my list of things to do this weekend is to restart my hypertufa activities. If it's not warm enough, I may not feel like making the hypertufa, but I have several that I'd like to photograph (ideally, with plants in them) and then post for sale on Craig's List. I'm just curious if I'd have any takers, and hypertufa is usually priced ridiculously high, mainly because it takes a long time to cure and so on, I guess. I don't think I'd want to sell them with the plants in them, yet they'd look far better to be photographed that way, so I'd have to keep repotting some poor plants without mangling them too much for each photo shoot.

I also have two outstanding writing assignments to do which have been hanging around only becus the subjects haven't gotten back to me; one's a builder and the other is a realtor I need to talk to about a new condo complex.

Well, it's 7:18 am and I guess I'd better start getting ready for work.

I left my part-time job early on Friday as I had a longstanding eye doc appointment for 1 pm. I squeezed in some extra time at the office on Wednesday and Thursday, so I only lost 1.25 hours worth of work. There was something going on along my driving route, though, with fire trucks all over and really backed up traffic so I had to do a big detour but I managed to get there only a few minutes late.

My eyes are fine; have to return in 6 months. (This is all becus my higher than normal eye pressure is indicative of glaucoma, although some people apparently just have high eye pressure.) Glaucoma can be controlled with eye drops, but the important thing is to catch it early. I have not been diagnosed with glaucoma but he wants to keep an eye on it. (No pun intended.)

Anyway, after that I hit the grocery store to use up $10.84 left on a pre-loaded Visa card I got as part of a rebate for buying Norton Anti-Virus software. The card won’t work if the charge exceeds the balance left on the card. I grabbed a gallon of bleach and a jar of marinated artichokes. I knew there’d be tax on the bleach, a non-food item, and CT sales tax increased to something like 6.35%, but I didn’t have a calculator with me. Do you know the charge came to EXACTLY $10.84? That was pretty cool.

After that I stopped at the auto parts place for a pair of front brake pads which cost me just $50. On Saturday I went over to the home of the woman who shares my proofreading job; her husband is a mechanic and works from home. Both the dealer and my mother’s mechanic had already told me that next time I came in I’d need to replace the 2 front brake pads, so I knew I needed them. From my files, I saw that front brake pad replacement cost me $170 at the dealer in 2002; my friend said she thought he’d charge me $50, cus that’s what he charges per hour and she didn’t think it would take him more than hour.

So I was hoping for “a deal.” The two of us chit-chatted over tea in her very Victorian house and later went for lunch at Panera’s while he worked on the car. When he started to take apart one of the brakes, the caliper broke in his hand. It and the other caliper were totally rusted and needed to be replaced, he said, but he wasn’t sure he could get the additional parts on a Saturday. Oh great. I had plans to leave later that afternoon around 4 pm for a dinner get-together in Nyack, an hour’s drive away, to meet family to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. And it would be the first time I’d be seeing my 2 year old niece.

He did get the car fixed, but instead of a total outlay of $100 (the parts I’d purchased and his labor), I wound up spending $275 becus he also had to replace those calipers. She told me it’d cost me $600 at the dealer. I know the dealer charges about $100 for labor, but I checked the price of the front calipers at autozone.com and for the two it was just $87. I don’t know exactly how much time he spent on it, but I’m not seeing the “huge” cost savings. So it cost $87 for the calipers, $50 for the pads I bought = $137, so looks like he charged me $88 for labor. He probably was cheaper than the dealer (remember, the dealer charged me $170 just for brake pad replacement 10 years ago), although I don’t think their charges would approach $600. Unless they really, really mark up parts far in excess of 100%.

When I drove over my friend’s to pay for the work, she invited me to Sunday dinner but I had to decline as I still had work to do at that point. I’m sure I’ll see her soon as they’re adopting a new puppy this week and she’s invited me over to see it.

We've also decided that the 2 of us will approach the HR person at our p/t job to push for health insurance coverage for the 6 month period between June 30 and Dec. 30, for me because my COBRA runs out June 30 and Obamacare health insurance coops don't begin til 1/1/14, and for my friend's husband as well, who lacks any coverage whatsoever. They're happy with our work, we're making close to minimum wage and from our standpoint putting us on the company plan would cost them little or nothing, altho a friend of mine disagrees. I figure we have nothing left to lose although I kind of doubt we'll have success.

I learned later from my office friend that one of her husband’s buddies wanted to meet me, based on no more than seeing my car in the driveway and finding out that it belonged to a friend of his friend’s wife who happens to be single, is around his age and lives in town.

Our family dinner was nice, but once again, the choice of venue was not great…inside a very noisy restaurant inside a very noisy and crowded mall. The parking was difficult. Everyone in our group of 7 had to shout to be heard. The place had like 20 TV screens going, adding to the noise. I wasn’t terribly impressed with my parmesan-crusted chicken or the cold garlic mashed potatoes. When I tried to hand over $50 to my brother, who sat on the other side of my father, my dad returned the $$ to me and said don’t worry about it, so I knew then that even though my bro was putting the tab on his charge card that my dad was going to reimburse him…for his own birthday dinner!

In between all this fun stuff is the reason for my post heading. Friday afternoon (doesn’t it always happen on a Friday?) I got a call from my chief freelance client about a huge job they wanted me to do, but it all had to be done my Monday (tomorrow). They had negotiated the price with a local daily newspaper to take up most of the advertising space in an annual real estate pull-out section. I needed to write 4 half page articles on various new condo or single family home projects as well as update 4 that had been used last year.

This involved calling 8 different realtors to interview them about the chief selling points of each complex, and doing that on a weekend in such a short timeframe would normally be a challenge, but fortunately my contact had prepped each realtor in advance of my call, so all but one “cooperated.” (One hasn’t returned my call so I wrote what I could based on the dedicated website for that particular community.)

Anyway, I’m glad as always for the work. I’ll earn $600 for I’m guessing maybe 10 or 12 hours of work, plus I have 2 other writing assignments unrelated to this that I haven’t even started. Will save that for tomorrow. Sure wish this happened more regularly!
I also got a call Friday from a place where I applied for a junior level editorial job last December. The guy said he had saved my resume and now there was another opening or a writer/editor which I’d be better qualified for, but could I look over some of their websites and give him my ideas for improving them. Once again, hard to ignore a request like that if I seriously want a crack at the job, but it is annoying to feel like they’re picking my brain for a free consult. They have 5 mags/trade websites in the field of alternative energy.

So somehow I need to refresh my brain and spend a few hours doing that in time for his call…tomorrow, you guessed it.