A few people are trying to make my town a "transition" town. This is a movement that's all about sustainability and weaning ourselves off oil and other fossil fuels.

I had registered to attend a showing of an interesting movie at the library about how Cuba experienced a kind of Peak Oil period after the Soviet Union collapsed and all the funding and aid they got from them dried up. Suddenly, there were oil and gas shortages, regular power outages and no food, so people started planting survival gardens wherever there was open space in Havana.

I was disappointed to find it was just me and one other woman attending the movie, with her daughter. There was supposed to be a discussion afterwards. The movie was ok, but a little dull, so when a thunderstorm suddenly arrived, I decided to dash home to put away a few things I'd left outside.

Today was the day I was going to addle the eggs of a pair of English sparrows that took up residence in one of the nest boxes after the bluebirds fledged. English sparrows and starlings are the only two birds you can legally kill in the US. English sparrows are very aggressive birds and will often peck the eggs of bluebirds, effectively killing them. They are responsible for the decline of many native songbirds and tend to dominate the habitat.

I consider myself very fortunate in that we don't seem to have an entrenched local population of English sparrows, starlings or cowbirds. I'm a longtime observer of birds in my own backyard, and in fact I've monitored songbird populations for Cornell for over 15 years. Occasionally I see the undesirable species but they usually appear to be passing through, and I consider myslef very lucky, becus I remember sitting on my lunch hour countless times when i worked in other towns, and all I'd ever see were English sparrows, starlings and doves. I felt like I lived in a little avian paradise. Until this spring, when I started seeing more and more of at least one pair of the dreaded English sparrows.

After doing some online research on the subject, I determined the best way to deal with these sparrows was to addle the eggs and pierce them with a needle as an additional precaution, then return them to the nest. There have been reports that if you destroy the eggs, the birds go after and attack the eggs of other birds, and I do have house wrens in the other nest box. Plus, if you return the eggs, the English sparrows will sit on them for another few weeks, which delays their ability to reproduce until they catch on the eggs aren't going to hatch.

So I approached the box this morning, not really relishing the prospect of eggicide, but realizing it was necessary. If you're a birder, you know what I mean. If you're not, it may seem harsh, but do the research and you'll understand.

I had cleaned out the box after the bluebirds left about a week and a half ago, and according to research, the English sparrows would have built their nest and laid their eggs by now. I wanted to get to the eggs before they hatched becus I know i'm not capable of harming live chicks, but i wanted to make sure all the eggs were laid (they usually lay one a day, up to about 7 eggs).

Then just yesterday, I saw a house wren hanging out by the box, which struck me as odd, since English sparrows are rather vicious and would have chased other birds away. I was surprised to find only a partially built nest inside, and NO eggs. For reasons unknown, the English sparrows apparently abandoned that nest. I had been seeing them repeatedly going in and out of the box, and I was sure they were nest-building. I would think it would be considered a prime nest site, but who knows.

The only other thing that happened is that a few days ago, I came home after being out, was in the sunroom and when i looked out the French door window, I saw what appeared to be a dead bird on the stoop outside. It most likely flew into the window, quite possibly frightened by a hawk. I've had hawk predation before ath the bird feeder, and birds will fly in a panic, in every direction, when a hawk appears. I felt sad as i looked at the bird, but didn't have time to dispose of it then. I didn't examine it closely, but thought it might be a song sparrow, which is a very pretty little bird.

I know from experience that sometimes what appears to be a dead bird is not really dead, but merely stunned from the head-on collision with glass, and that the best thing to do is leave it be (as long as it's safe from cats) and see if it recovers on its own. I checked the bird about 15 minutes later, and it was still there, so i figured, too bad, it's really dead.

The next morning, I made a point to go and take the dead bird somewhere, and guess what? It was gone! Either one of two things happened: 1. the bird was stunned, as described above, or 2. some kind of predator happened upon it over night and grabbed it.
I do have foxes and coyotes here, as well as cats and the occasional raccoon, but they are seldom seen and are not a daily visitor, as far as I know, especially so close to the house. So now I wonder if the bird recovered.

If it didn't recover, i suppose it's POSSIBLE it was the English sparrow female, which is easily confused with other sparrows and female house finches. That could be one reason why nest building ceased in the bluebird box.

Another riddle I guess I'll never know.

....I'm down $28,000 for the month of May alone in the stock market. The Euro mess is doing a Euro number on my portfolio.

I think things are getting back to normal at my p/t job. There were a few weeks there when, due to the point I had reached in my work, I had to come in to the office for my 3rd day of work (Fridays) instead of working at home. boo hoo. How much longer my abbreviated work week seemed when I had to work 3 days in office instead of 2 days in, 1 day at home.

Not that I'm complaining. Though I never thought I'd even have this job that long. But a variety of "sure thing" job interviews I had went nowhere. So here I am.

I'm going to ask the editor in chief if she minds if i relocate my work area to another desk in the back of the room. She seems to be of the habit of blasting the AC all day; she sits directly underneat the wall unit so maybe she doesn't get that much cold air, but where i sit, it's directly blowing on me. The first day i experienced this was last week, on the first day i'd returned to work after having a bad cold. I remember worrying all day as i worked whether having cold air blowing on me was going to worsen the cold, but i was reluctant to say anything to the editor, until finally i did later in the afternoon. I asked her if she minded turning it down a notch, and that's exactly what she did. Turn it down...a notch. Sigh.

So i'd rather just move my desk rather than disrupt her usual habits. I don't think she will object, as i'm told several others who used to sit where I sit also had major problems with that AC and had to wear sweaters in August.

Last night was good sleeping weather; the humidity of the last few days, so alarming to have in May, is gone, and while it's still warm, it's also much drier.

A few days ago I was sinking metal hoops around my tomatoe plants, which now number 8! I did a REALLY STUPID thing. As I sank the prongs of one into the ground, I felt a certain resistance before it sank in. I realized with a sinking heart that i was very close to the soaker hose I'd buried under a few inches of dirt. It was a lot of extra work to dig out a trench and lay that hose, and now I think I've punctured it!

The only way to know for sure is to hook up my 100-foot hose to the soaker hose, turn the water on and see if it comes out at the other end of the soaker hose, which i haven't buried yet. I haven't had a chanceto do that yet.

Poor Luther. I told you how when it gets bored and he's home along, he goes around and opens all the cabinet doors in the kitchen and elsewhere. Well, another really annoying habit he has, when I'm home, is he'll scratch the walls. Usually in the office when i'm at the computer, he'll start scratching in one spot. As soon as I yell at him, he comes running to me. I yell at him so much i think he thinks that's my normal speaking voice.

They will, especially on the first day they're allowed to graze pasture after a long winter of being confined to the barnyard and mostly indoors.

Here's a video: http://www.stonyfield.com/healthy-planet/organic-farming/have-cow/how-make-cow-happy-just-add-grass?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Stonyfield%20Moos%20-%20May%202012%20Yahoo%20Day%201%205-25-2012&utm_content=&spMailingID=39250291&spUserID=MjQwMzg2NTAzNjQS1&spJobID=144252995&spReportId=MTQ0MjUyOTk1S0

Of course, the vast majority of cows raised on industrial farms never go outside, let alone see green grass.

i hadn't realized that it's a USDA requirement that cows raised on organic farms must graze on pasture...real grass.. at least 120 days of the year.

I got a lot done yesterday and the weekend ain't over yet!

1. Weeded a badly neglected perennial bed and then threw some mulch on it; it looks much better now.

2. Deposited a check at the bank.

3. Made some yummy "Sloppy Portobellos." Similar to a Sloppy Joe except this one's made of chopped up portobello mushrooom, onion and garlic instead of beef. I had it with a green salad, corn on the cob and homemade sweet potato fries. Will be having the leftovers today.

4. I planted the rest of my vegetable seedlings, only to come across afterwards a local woman on Craig's List selling heirloom tomatoes for just $3 each. So I contacted her and am set on going over there this a.m. althhough she hasn't confirmed the time yet. I don't have much room left, but would love to try a few heirloom varieties and see if they are superior to the usual mass marketed stuff.

I cam across 3 different toads recently in the veggie garden. I try to be on the lookout for them cus i don't want to step on them and i would like to encourage them to stick around, although they are surrounded by a sea of inhospitable (to a toad) lawn.

5. Did a load of laundry.

6. Changed the bed sheets.

7. Weed whacked around things in the front yard.

8. Cut down a broken branch of a crabapple tree and started cutting broken branches of an adjacent apple tree, for which I know I'll need to hire a tree guy to finish (maybe next weekend?), but this at least will make it easier to mow under there and allow more in air to dry things up.

I woke up around 6 am today and as per usual, walked into the bathroom where i raised the mini blinds at the back window. 99.9% of the time I put on my glasses before getting up, but this time I didn't for some reason, and wouldn't you know it, the noise from me raising the mini blinds (window partially open) scared away some interesting animal picking up the crumbs from the bird feeder. It was reddish, so i think it was a fox, which i don't see here that often. Darn! Without my glasses, it was all a blur. I saw it run off.

9. I went around taking photos of all the plants in my yard i figured i could sell, and came up with about a dozen. Then I wrote fairly detailed descriptions of each. Wondering what kind of response i'll get, if i get any. (I already had 2 customers.) This a.m. someone inquired about wanting a large amount of pachysandra, which i have more of than anything around here, but it's a BEAR to dig up mature and dense pachysandra. You really need to hack away at it with the shovel. I'm hoping the cheap price of $5 per perennial, or $5 per flat for the groundcovers, is cheap enough to be an inducement to people to come and dig their own. I'll help them do it, of course, but it's a lot of work just to save a few dollars. Most especially the pachysandra.

10. I also went to the library and got 5 DVDs, which will provide entertainment most of the rest of the coming week.

I think instead of doing the Chase Sapphire card next ($3,000 spend for $400 cash) I have my eye on the Amex Premier Rewards card (spend $2,000 for $250 in Gift cards). Charging $3,000 in 3 months would be a real challenge, easier if i were working and had some kind of planned major expense, so i think i will just settle for now for the Amex Premier card. Getting gift cards instead of cash "feels" like a lot more fun, and I can balance out a few "fun" purchases with things I really use/need, so i feel i can justify it. Buying grocery store gift cards is still a very handy/helpful thing to reach the spending target, as long as it's a reasonable amount and you're not having to buy $1,000 worth of grocery store gift cards.

anyway, I haven't gotten the bill yet for the Citi Thank you card and I'll have a bit of a lull until the planned application for the Amex card in July. I want to time the receipt of the new card to be just before i get my next car insurance bill.

I just spent at least 2 hours troubleshooting some unexpected computer problems. It all started becus my printer was once again not working. I've gotten into the habit of reinstalling the print driver becus it's the only thing I know that works to get the Dell computer and printer talking to each other. (I am no longer a Dell fan.) That, and having to stop and start the print spooler. Documents sit in the queue and prevent anything from being printed.

Then I had 21 MS updates to install, which took quite a while. then Norton anti-virus found "a problem" and had to fix it.

It seems there was a problem with my dleacoms.exe, which relates to printer communication. I figured out/stumbled upon a way to do a System Restore and finally everything is working just fine. (Let's hope it lasts.)

I now have my $250 worth of gift cards for Home Depot, Lowes, Sears and Wal-Mart (thanks, Citi), plus $40 of Amazon gift cards.

I was salivating over all the free stuff; it felt like Christmas morning. Now, though I haven't even spent them, my ardor has cooled. What's wrong with me? Don't want to spend money??

I do have plans to go out today and use a bunch of them, and I can do my grocery shopping with gift cards I bought trying to hit the spending target with that Citi credit card to begin with. So maybe my enthusiasm will return when I come home later today with a pile of stuff at no cost.

All of my beans...the wax beans, string beans and soybeans....are coming up now. I planted one long row of them. Yesterday I placed tiny little tinfoil collars around the base of each one to protect them from cut worms, who can mow them down with no warning.

Today's goal is to buy tomato and bell pepper plants, maybe cukes, too, and get them in the ground. I'd hoped to do this 2 weeks ago but my cold got in the way, and a bunch of other stuff.

I'd also like to hit Wal-Mart and get some nice summer clothes. See, I will be shopping frugally. Not sure I'm looking forward to the crowds, but I don't feel like waiting til Tuesday, when everyone (but me) goes back to work).

I got 1 of my 2 real estate freelance projects done, so I can bill the client today for $200; I had hoped to be working on the 2nd one this weekend, but the builder never called me. My client has indicated, though, that she'll have a third project for me as well, so that's cool.

I sent out another mortgage payment, which has now become exciting and momentous becus this latest payment, for instance, should get my balance down below $7,000.

The job market sucks. I am really beginning to feel a full-time salaried job is a hopeless search. I'm now paying $562/mth for COBRA on a p/t income, and the COBRA will only last til June 2013. Something has to give. I'm just not seeing any jobs. Yeah, I can keep myself pretty occupied chasing after the "scraps..." the poll worker stuff, the freelance here and there, and whatever else I can find to earn a buck, like Craig's List sales of plants in my yard....but this is just not a sustainable way to live. I keep hoping for an economic turnaround that would dramatically lower the unemployment rate and i often feel like it's a race, and who's going to win? Can I sit out the recession or will it last longer than I can?

That's me. All day long. I guess it'll get worse before it gets better.

Naturally, when I'm feeling my lowest is when i get more work to do.

My real estate client has already given me a 2nd sales brochure to do in addition to the first, which I only just began. I am thrilled to have the work. Both are luxury home subdivisions. I usually interview the builder, often the sales manager appointed to market the property by the real estate company, and then I do my writeup.

It's just a little hard to really go at it because my energy level is zilch and I don't feel much like talking, let alone intelligently.

I should be all over it now since I go back to my p/t job Wed/Thurs/Friday so won't have time to interview anyone.

Ah, well.

I got a big $3 settlement from a class action lawsuit involving KFC.

It's raining now. Good for the garden.

Thinking more about what to do about an IRA contribution this year. I have never missed making the full contribution on any year, but that's because, since I always had ample savings, I would simply sell taxable mutual funds and transfer the money over to my Roth.


I could do the same this year, though I'm nervous about doing so as my income is so low. Also, all my taxable money is stuck in an international fund, which is way down due to what's happening in Europe. So i'd be selling at a big loss.

I have only so much free cash on hand and at some point in the next few years, I imagine I'll need a new car. Once unemployment runs out, if I'm still lacking a salaried position, I may be needing that taxable lump sum to live on. So I don't know. I think I will take the risk and contribute to the Roth anyway, since I could withdraw without penalty if I needed to.

My cold is still bothering me, though so far it seems milder than ordinary winter colds.

So, I've taken it easy this weekend, although yesterday I did saw down two trees I didn't want growing in my wineberry patch: a black locust and an ailanthus that seemingly appeared from nowhere and rapidly grew to about 20 feet high. Each was about 4 inch diameter.

Don't ask me what possessed me to do it, with a cold, except that I'd been wanting to do it for weeks, especially before the ailanthus bloomed; that tree is known to cause big allergy problems, and Waldo has really suffered each summer. I'm pretty sure now the ailanthus is the villian, but there's not much I can do now about the giant one growing very close to the house.

Today I made a jug of iced tea, using black and green tea bags. I read the skimpy Sunday paper, clipped a few coupons and did a load of laundry. I refreshed the hummingbird water and the black oil sunflower seed for the other birds. Sprayed some poison ivy and topped off the solar bird bath so the fountain pump doesn't run dry.

I watered the new grass I planted and the transplanted viburnum which has only a 50/50 chance of survival, it appears. checked on the veggie garden; no sign of bean seedlings yet.

Did the first part of the writeup for a new freelance assignment. Plan to call the builder back tomorrow to schedule an interview time.

Didn't leave the house either day.

I brought up the rest of the window screens and inserted them for the season. Applied for 2 jobs online. I finished reading Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. It was very interesting. She did the kind of thing I always wanted to do, although it was the Appalachian Trail I would have hiked. And I don't think I would have endured the chawed up feet and blackened toenails, or hiked alone, as she did.

Tomorrow, if i have the energy, I'd like to get some groceries and then pick up milk at Walgreens. And I have to talk to the bulider to write the rest of the sales brochure. And I'd really like to buy my tomato plants this weekend.

I am looking forward to maybe getting some fun summer sandals and a summer top or two with some of my gift cards, once I get them in the mail. It could be a few weeks before I do.

I'm going to hit the sack early.

Yesterday my second plant/perennial customer came over after work and together we dug up 6 flats worth of lily of the valley. I earned an easy $30 from getting rid of some plants that were growing in the wrong place and spreading into a path.

I haven't had a chance to post again on Craig's List with even more plants offered, but I plan to.

This morning was the long-awaited redemption of Citi Thank You points. I earned 27,105, so I spread the money around (very carefully) among gift cards for Home Depot, Lowes, Sears and WalMart. (I was momentarily tempted to get a Pottery Barn gift card, as I've always liked their stuff, but I figured I'd get a lot less bang for the buck becus of their higher prices, and so I passed.)

The Lowes and Home Depot cards ($50 each) could possibly be used for veggie plants, if I get them soon enough, or otherwise various and assorted needs for the house that arise from time to time.

The Walmart and Sears cards ($100 and $50, respectively, I would like to use a portion of for clothing; a lot of my clothing doesn't fit right, and I've been hanging on to some favorite t-shirts for years in the likely vain hope i will someday fit into them again. I seem to have only a few summer tops that look respectable on me and now that i am working outside the home for a portion of the week, i can't repeat the same outfits all the time.

The Wal-mart card can easily be used for other household needs like cat food or the occasional grocery item.

I only need another 400 points or so to earn another $25 gift card which I was thinking would be nice to use for a Bed Bath & Beyond trip.

I really didn't want all the cards to be used for frivolous things I don't really "need," but I figure a few well-chosen tops and the veggie plants and some needs for the house can be justified.

In addition to the $250 in Citi gift cards, I also have collected $40 in Amazon gift cards and I have a $25 Home Goods gift card, all earned from various online surveys/forums. I'm feeling dizzy with the possiblities. For someone who's self-enforced a strict no spending policy due to underemployment for the past 2.5 years, the gift cards are sort of like a Chinese buffet to someone stranded on a desert island. But I want to make sure that every dollar used is well considered and carefully made.

I am very annoyed to be coming down with some sort of cold, which is very unusual for me in May! I think I know when I got it, though. When I was working as a poll worker last Tuesday, a mother holding a kid and another at her side came up to the table. My head was down as i was looking up her name, but I heard the mother say, "Cover your mouth, honey," and I think the kid had sneezed, right at me.

The voter registrar already asked me if I could work the THIRD budget vote (yes, the last one failed by about 5oo votes) and I said yes, so June 5 will be another go-round. Hopefully, I should be all better by then.

Yesterday after work I finally finished mowing the lawn; it took me 3 days to mow all of it. I hope this isn't a sign that I'm even more out of shape, but just because the grass got a little higher than normal with all the rain we'd had, before I had a chance to cut it.

Sspring has indeed arrived here. I'm pretty sure the resident bluebirds have fledged their babies becus i haven't seen any activity around the box. I hope they all made it ok. I remember one year i found a dead baby bird inside the box when i cleaned it out. I think it was house wrens that used the box that year......just as i wrote that, i caught sight of a bird entering the box, and i coudln't make out what it was. It could have been the female bluebird, which is a more drab color than the male, or it could have been another bird ready to take up residence if the bluebirds were gone. Or, it could have been a wren or English sparrow, both aggressive birds. The sparrows have been known to puncture bluebird eggs with their beaks and even kill baby bluebirds in an attempt to take over the box.

I've never had a problem with English sparrows here but this spring have been unhappy to see a few at the feeder. I will not allow them to nest in either of my 2 nest boxes.

Ahh, the bluebirds are still in the box! Just saw the male fly in with food, except that he's no longer entering the box but perched on the outside and sticks his head in; that must mean the babies are getting big and the nest is getting too crowded. I think they are just days away from fledging.

Here is the pretty mother's day gift my sister gave my mother; i love the way she decorates her gifts...


Yes, they're real flowers.


This was my no-bake kiwi cheesecake, so yummy, and just 4 ingredients.


And my small tabletop bouquet, from the garden.

I worked 15 hours today in the polls and at the end of the night, we learned the 2nd budget vote FAILED by about 100 votes. The people have spoken! And that means that 1. my property taxes will be lower and 2. I get to work a 3rd time as a poll worker.

Then there are still the Democratic primary in August and of course the national election, so i have the potential of earning $875 from working the polls 5x this year.

My old real estate client said they have several new communities for me to write sales brochures, so that's also great; I haven't gotten any work from them since February!

AND, a SECOND person is coming up here Friday after work to buy more of my perennials. This one wants 5 flats of lily of the valley, which grows like crazy here.

I also yesterday finished up my 3rd guardian ad litem report for someone and am just waiting for a small final piece of the report; then I can bill her, though I don't charge her much. $87 so far and then the final piece.

I wish I could relax tomorrow but I can't...have to go to my normal p/t job.

wow, this feels like the first time all day I've actually sat down.

What did I do?

1. Confirmed with voter registrar that I WILL be working tomorrow in our 2nd budget vote. And along that vein, for tomorrow's lunch, I shredded the rest of the turkey from the turkey breast I had for mother's day and made a turkey salad with mayo, dried cranberries and chopped green apple, and a little red onion.

2. Picked up my free 8 x 10 photo at walgreen's, thanks to an alert by Monkey mama.

3. ran to Target to pick up some Lean Cuisines. got them at the sale price of $2.50, plus i got a $5 Target gift card for doing so AND I participate in the Lean Cuisine promotion from which I already got 2 magazine subscriptions.

4. looked for some tomato and pepper plants, but the store i went to had very poor looking stock, all leggy.

5. Kept digging up sod in the veggie garden so i could plant some yellow wax beans, green string beans and soybeans before the expected rain of the next few days. Mission accomplished. i also laid a portion of my soaker hose in a shallow trench right next to where i planted the beans. As i worked, i saved all the grubs i found and put them in a shallow tray for the bluebirds, who gobbled them up.

Gosh, I know I did more but now i can't remember!

Yesterday's Mother's Day dinner consisted of the above-mentioned turkey breast (a freebie from Shop rite after spending $200 in one month last November) with gravy, mashed (organic) potatoes, a yummy chutney I made with chopped pineapple, golden raisins, red onion and freshly grated ginger, my sister's asparagus salad and for dessert, i made a kiwi (no bake) cheesecake which used just 4 ingredients. (Appetizer was a crusty Trader Joe's bread with an eggplant spread.)

As mentioned in my last post, someone responded to my Craig's List ad where I offered three or four different perennials for sale.

She was here bright and early this morning. I dug up some extra plants cus i wasn't sure which she'd want, and she casually took them all! (If I had known how easy this would be, I would have dug up more!) Ahh, I remember those days when I would spend money just as easily for things that I wanted. The good old days....So I made an easy $40 from baby plants, and I still have all the mother plants and more babies.

So I got to thinking, and realized I have probably a dozen different perennials I could offer for sale. I made theones I sold pretty cheap, $5 for a larger plant or $2.50 for a little one. I figured if I didn't, people might just as soon go to a Home Depot and get a better selection or something.

So I may post another ad before i return to work.

It was such a gorgeous day today, sunny and in the 70s. So I spent much of the afternoon working outside. I really have to get going on the veggie garden. My goal is to plant my soybeans and string beans this weekend, but i have a lot of sod to shake out and still more digging. It's back breaking work when you're diggin up lawn.

Whenever I came across a grub in the sod, instead of squashing it as I usually do, I saved them in a little cup and then put in on a bucket lid on the grass near the bluebird box. I think I'm getting them trained now to look for grubs when i put it out, because when i looked at the cup a short time later, it was already turned upside down. I had 3 grubs in there, 1 was huge. (Somebody got a treat.)

I used up the rest of my pile of mulch under the big rhododendron in back. I think the Patient Saver Mulch Crisis has now abated.

I earned $30 worth of Amazon gift cards from some online forums I particpate in on an ongoing basis. In the past, I've used these gift cards for a variety of stuff, including a very nice pendant light fixture for over the kitchen sink and 5 lbs of black licorice, which in hindsight was not the best spend, but i was in the mood for licorice and they only sold it in 5 lb quantities. More recently, I also bought 3 books, 2 vegan cook books and a best-seller that I've just begun reading, Wild.

Books are a treat and I don't read enough, so I am leaning toward using the current $30 on books; I could save them and wait another month when I'll get another $30 in gift cards, which would no doubt multiply the possiblities, but doubt i can wait that long with gift cards burning a hole in my pocket!

I haven't been able to bring myself to do any of those stupid online surveys. Lately I've begun to wonder if some of them have made it even harder to earn points. Countless times I've been totally annoyed to spend 10 or 15 minutes answering questions only to be told I don't qualify for the survey. These things just aren't worth it, really. I've done them for over a year and I've about had my fill. Maybe I'll just do the Pinecone and Toluna ones and forget all the others. That may have been part of the problem. I used to do Pinecone and Toluna exclusively, and then I reached the $600 earnings point with Toluna, believe it or not, and then I couldn't do any more surveys with them that year until I gave them my SS number so they could report the earnings. It was at that point, around September of last year, I think, that I stopped doing the Toluna surveys to avoid paying the taxes and opened up accounts with 3 or 4 other places of the same ilk. But doing so also means I'm spreading my surveys, time and points among 5 or so different survey outfits rather than one, so it tooks much longer to earn money. it's only worth doing this if you're an invalid and can't leave the house, and if you devote a LOT of time to them. In my case, I believe they really distract me from spending my time on much more worthwhile endeavors, whether it's money making or not.

This is the feral one...he's come a long way.

I did some grocery shopping this a.m. and bought some gift cards (another $200 worth) to finally meet my target spending goal. All told, I had to buy $700 worth of grocery gift cards, in addition to my normal spending! Basically, that's about 2.5 months of advance groceries.

If I decide to do the Sapphire card later this year, I'll make SURE to time it so I can pay my homeowners bill with it. That will help a lot.

This afternoon, I moved a small viburnum I'd planted a number of years ago, that hadn't grown much since it was really getting shaded out by much larger shrubs. i moved it to what i think will be a much sunnier spot in back. I HOPE it will survive having been dug up.

I also sprayed poison ivy growing in the area where I moved three silky dogwood seedlings. I will be berry picking in that area this summer, and I'd rather not be tromping thru poison ivy each time, although I always wear knee-high boots. The silky dogwood is still alive, no doubt helped my some well-timed rain right after planting.

I planted two pots of basil seed.

I did a bit more work digging up sod in my veggie garden. The snap peas are doing well, about two inches high now. Lettuce is teeny, teeny. Cauliflower and collard seelings getting chewed by bugs. Broccoli hanging in there.

I ran to a local bait shop and bought 25 mealy worms for $1.85 after watching mom and dad bluebird fly back and forth, back and forth, to the nest box to feed the babies. I spread the meely worms out on the lid of a bucket and put it on the lawn about 10 feet from the bird box. Took them a while to realize there was good food there, but then I had a lot of fun, watching with binoculars from my office window, as the bluebird male returned again and again to stuff as many meely worms in his mouth at once and fly to the box.

I drove to town hall to see if i could finally find out from voter registar if I can work this Tuesday, a 2nd referendum vote, but the office was closed. I will try to call again on Monday.


Here's a pretty shot I took on a recent walk.

Oh, yes, and I'm psyched. Someone actually responded to a Craig's List ad i put in last week offering some perennials for sale, $5 each. She wants 4 blue milkweeds and is coming tomorrow for them. Truth be told, this is not the best time to dig them up as they're getting ready to flower very soon. But I have some growing on the north side of the house, which gets less sun and so they're a little behind the other plants, growthwise. I don't want them to be so wilted that she declines to buy them, so I think I'll wait til the morning to dig them up. These are pretty hardy plants and I know they'll bounce back as long as they're given plenty of water, as I've transplanted them many times now. I may be able to interest her in some coral bells too; i have both the green and burgundy varieties.

UPDATE: She wants the coral bells...yes! But the babies are small, so to be fair i'll give her 2 small coral bells for $5. Or more, if she wants more.

I hadn't expected any responses on these plants, so I'm happy to be making a few dollars on plants that have multiplied by themselves....It will multiply the cash in my pocket, to about $25.

Oh, don't mind me. My mood will improve eventually.

I just had a bad afternoon at the office today. Everything seemed to be blowing up in my face and the editor in chief was on my case. The other project editor was very kind and said she was ready to quit last year when ed in chief was similarly bitching at her, but someone else talked her out of it.

I kinda felt that way today and was glad to get out of there; i don't have to return til Wednesday, so after playing catch-up for missed work hours last week and not feeling like i was getting much of a break, i can now relish a stretch of time off to do other stuff.

The other reason i'm in a bad mood is today i received notice of my COBRA rate increase for the coming year. I knew this was coming. The big question was, how much more as I anxiously recalculated my budget for like the millionth time. I had read that on average, health insurance premiums were rising by about 7% this year, so that's what i was counting on, but no, Connecticut is higher. I guess my increase was in the neighborhood of 16.5%, more than double the nat'l average. My COBRA ws $469/month and starting June 1 will be $562. Oww.

I mowed the lawn tonight to get that out of the way. I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow. And then there's Mother's Day, which honestly, I'm in no mood to plan, but my sister hasn't volunteered to have any kind of get-together at her place for years. I see my mother ALL the time; i don't see why we need to have yet another obligatory get-together with my sullen sister. And me having to pull together some kind of meal.

I suppose i sound grumpy and selfish, but like i said, bad mood. Need to vent.

I need to do some planting and do a lot of work in the vegetable garden. I need to check to make sure my docs are all in network under the new plan and call to see if Teva Neuroscience has a discount plan with Anthem the way they do elsewhere. This is a huge help, since it means I have no co-pays for this drug.

Umm, the guy I met for coffee the other night? He was nice, but far too old for me. I hadn't paid much attention to his age when he contacted me online. I'm sorry, I'm not ready to date a senior citizen and it didn't help when the first thing he talked about when we met was how funny he felt when he applied for Medicare the other day. I'm not there yet!!!

The vast majority of men love to date women far younger than themselves, which might work for a while, but there comes a point when those same women who may have dated you in your 40s aren't interested in doing same when you're 64 and she's 52! Time to be a bit more realistic about what you can attract.

So as of today, I'm shy just $252 of my Citi Thank You card spending goal, and I just another week and a half to spend that. I'll likely wind up at Shop Rite and just buy more gift cards. All I can say is, it's going to be one heck of a bill...about $1,500, but I must (and will) pay it in full.

Not much else new.

I did an interesting legal focus group last Friday at the law offices of a firm trying a negligence case. Two of their attorneys presented both sides (they didn't tell us which side they were actually representing til it was over) to about 10 of us and we discussed and decided the case. And they paid us $100. I'd love to do more of those but you don't see these too often.

I learned about it by seeing a full-page ad in the local paper, which i decided was reason enough to renew my Sunday only subscription for another $20, something I'd been debating.

Freelance work has been dead. I THINK I'm working the polls in my hometown a week from today, but registrar hasn't confirmed that yet. I'll give it a few more days and then call her Friday if I haven't heard from her. My only worry is that she finds enough other people and somehow overlooks me, despite my calling with my interest as soon as I heard the budget was defeated in the first go-round.

I'm doing something tonight I haven't done in a VERY long time...meeting a strange man for coffee. Potential friend. I'm reluctant to get involved with anyone becus even if they're understanding of your underemployed situation, I doubt they could understand my desire to spend NOTHING extra. Nothing. And I don't want to be a leech on someone else. I feel like there are so many things I'm deferring that I just can't justify frivolous stuff like...coffee or meals out.

Over 2 years after my layoff, I finally got around to asking my old boss's boss for a Linked In recommendation. I knew he would say something really good about me, and he had a pretty weighty role at my old employer. He was the one who hired me, and the one who laid me off. I guess I felt a little funny asking him, for that reason, but more recently I figured, what the heck. I always thought very highly of him. He's very personable, very intelligent, very capable and I must say, I felt personally attracted to him. For some reason, there were a lot of people in my old group at the company who had a strong disliking for him. Especially one who I worked very closely with. So it was hard to remain objective; I never really saw or experienced any of the bad things that were said about him but I often wondered how people's perceptions of the same person could be so skewed.

Anyway, I was very pleased to finally hear from him a few weeks after i asked for the LI reference; he's going to write one for me, he's just been busy.

I managed to transplant three silky (or gray) dogwood seedlings spreading out from the mama plant to a bare area on the hill out back where I had to have the damaged sugar maple taken down. I don't know if they'll make it or not; it was a real bear digging in the soil which was compacted by roots of poison ivy, lots of brambles nad other stuff. It'd be nice to have a small grove of silky dogwood growing there rather than invasives of every stripe.

I may try to sell more silky dogwood seedlings as well as lily of the valley pips and pachysandra cheap on Craig's List. Also could divide my blue milkweed and sell some of that too.

At home chillin' after the contract job interview this am.

It was a long drive...it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get there. it's tied with another job I had years ago for longest commute ever. I found myself wondering on the ride home if I could stand to do this 5 days a week. It was all highway; if there was ever a serious backup, I'm sure it could take even longer.

I met with 2 people, both of them contract workers themselves, in the cafeteria of the company, and also briefly met a third. This is the new reality. Corporate America has fared very well in this economy, and part of their success is due to increasingly hiring contract workers to get the job done that used to be done by salaried employees. I wonder sometimes how this is even legal, because they're reversing what, like a hundred years of worker rights? (In a similar vein, labor unions fought many battles to win benefits and salaries only to see at least one outspoken state governor recently throw it all out the window in the name of cutting costs.) So where does this lead the average employee? If your employer doesn't provide your health insurance and you happen to be unmarried or your spouse doesn't have a good plan, you're left scrambling to find something that approaches "affordable."

Anyway, back to the interview.

They were both pretty friendly. However, I have a somehwat different impression of the job based on what the recruiter had told me. It would be very challenging, because it's both left brain/right brain demanding. Half the job is needing to know how to write well, and I have no qualms about that at all, but the other half is having the ability to fairly quickly absorb and understand how their website is organized, the Internet architecture, if you will, and then also learning a variety of software tools that are used to accomplish different things. That's the part that intimidates me a little. I never really considered myself especially tech-savvy, although I use both Macs and PCs. I mostly use MS Office Suite, plus a little Quark and FileMaker which I learned at my current p/t job. I also have used a few content management systems.

They didn't seem to expect that I'd know it all now, but wanted to make sure I had the experience from other similar situations that would help me pick it up. All in all, it seemed to go well. I'm waiting to hear back from the recruiter, who i know was over at the job site.

As for the phone interview, it wasn't really much of a phone interview. Just like at Pru, it seemed like she'd already made up her mind after seeing my resume and had already decided she wanted me to come in for the group interview, and she sounded very rushed. The start date, based on what i learned today, has been pushed back by a few days, which is good, becus in the event i do get an offer, i'd then have to do a urine test and background check, and i told the recruiter I really want to give my p/t employer at least a week's notice, which is all there will be time for, if that.

I'm sort of hoping to learn something definitive before this week is out. Like maybe tonight/tomorrow.

If I DONT get the job, I think I may be somewhat relieved. I know if i get an offer I will definitely take it becus it's the right thing to do on many different levels, but I have huge concerns about the long commute and my ablity to learn the job quickly.

I learned something else not too good about the p/t job i have now...since we're working so effiiciently, but possibly becus that's just how they scheduled it, they will be temporarily laying us off for the entire month of January and then rehiring us in February to start the next round of (3) books.

I had mentioned to the other gal who has my job my concern that we were doing so well we might just be working ourselves out of a job and she said oh, no, when they hired you part-time, that means year-round work and I said not necessarily. she actually asked the question at an opportune time and that's when we learned we'd have a no-income January. We can collect unemployment on that, but since the pay is so piddly to start, it will be very little.

There's an opportunity for me to do a roughly 4 month contract job for a large employer in my area. The job would gross about $6,066 a month, or $24,266 for the 4 months. Then, presumably, I'd be done, and back to looking for a job.

If I took that job, I'd have to quit my part-time job at 25 hours a week for $375 gross a week (or $1,625 a month or $6,500 for the same 4 months).

I think I should take the full-time job, but I'd have to let go of my lifeline, the p/t job. It's not a slam dunk decision, but here are my thoughts why I should take the f/t job:

1. Having worked for a big company looks good on a resume and could open up more doors down the road.

2. Possibility it could lead to longer term work. (One can hope.)

3. I would switch to recruiter's health insurance plan so that when the job ended it would reset the COBRA clock that determines how many months I can continue on COBRA.

4. While my current p/t job is supposedly permanent, not temporary, a recent conversation i had with manager indicates the company is on shaky ground and barely breaking even. Building is up for sale and owners could choose to retire at any time. For all I know, that's their plan, to close down the business when the buidling sells.

Even though the pay is much less, I'm a little nervous about giving up what APPEARS now to be something that would last much longer than 4 months, but I can't really count on that.

I'd be giving up a p/t job with partial work at home and easy, back roads commute for a daily commute of an hour (maybe more with traffic?) but at least in the summer it'd be daytime driving.

5. Working there and then losing the job at end of term would i think qualify me for more unemployment benefits. Not that I want to forever be reliant on benefits, and I so want to work full-time, but I need it if I'm not working.

I calculate 15 weeks of work grossing $21,000, or $15,360 net. If I continued my uber-frugal living habits and existed on minimum monthly expenses of $2,431 a month during that time, I could cover expenses AND possibly save as much as $6,917 for a rainy day. (I would spend considerably more on gas, though.)

Your thoughts?

That's because I needed to charge up my Citi Thank You card, so I purchased $200 worth of Trader Joe's gift cards and $300 worth of Shop Rite gift cards, along with my usual groceries.

I calculate that brings my total spending up to about $1300, so I anticipate I may still need MORE gift cards in the next few weeks.

I regret having to do it this way (for the $250 rewards), because next month I'll be faced with one whopper of a credit card bill totalling about $1500. And I'll have to pay it in full.

Oh well, lesson learned. If you're going for the rewards, take it seriously. Don't waste the first month's worth of spending on another credit card, as I did.

There was a full page ad in the local paper by a local law firm looking for people to do a focus group/mock trial, and they'll pay $100. I was interviewed over the phone and then supposedly they'll let you know either way. It's this Friday night. I'd love to do this.

Also unsure whether they'll let me do the poll work again at the 2nd budget vote. No one's gotten back to me.

I had a reason to talk to the temp agency that offers my health insurance through COBRA. June 1 there's going to be a big increase....11.5%, she said, in my premiums. SO NOT looking forward to that. I had calculated a 7% increase, but no, we're higher than the national average.

I'm kind of freaking out a little becus the unemployment benefits that i so carefully calculated would last til mid-June may not last past next week!

When i called in to report my weekly earnings, they said the state unemployment rate fell below the critical 8% threshold, which means federal benefits end or something. It depends on whether you're on the federal EB program or state EUC program, and i have no idea which one i'm on, or which "tier" (1 of 4) i'm on. I have to call in tomorrow, if the system will let me. I may have to wait til week's end. I'm super nervous. Shit may be hitting fan sooner than I planned for.

Just now got word from a recruiter I know about a 4 month temp job for someone going on maternity leave. It's an hour drive, no matter, would love to do it. Full-time, would be good pay, and I could switch to Aquent's health plan when i started the job so that, after the 4 months of work ended, my COBRA (i believe) would start anew. Right now, my COBRA ends June of next year; I'd like to reset the clock for another 33 months so i at least don't have the loss of COBRA as another worry. I know the letter she sent me about the job is a form letter that surely went out to a bunch of people she felt were qualified, so who knows what my chances are. Will call her tomorrow.

Aside from job anxieties, it was a pretty good day today. Besides hitting Trader Joe's and Shop Rite, I returned some DVDs at the library. I finally got around to watching Twilight, just so i can stay abreast of pop culture, and actually, i liked it very much. This prompted me to check out the 2nd and 3rd sequels, Eclipse and whatever the other one is called. I'll be watching the 2nd tonight.

Speaking about movies, it's amazing how you can get a whole lot of star power and have a total flop of a movie. Like "The Walker." It stars Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin and Kristin Scott Lewis (did i get that name right?) I mean, all 3 great actors, but this was one SNOOZE of a movie. i didn't even bother watching it all the way through.

Yardwork-wise, I was able to sow some grass seed in 2 medium-sized areas of my lawn, one where pachysandra was making a mess of things and then another area that used to be part of my veggie garden but no longer is since i needed to move the fence further away from a tree that's growing a little too well. If I didn't sow grass (like i need MORE to mow?) it would be weeds, so....

Sowing grass seed is actually hard work. Pulling out weeds, loosening the soil and raking it smooth, putting hay over it so the birds don't get the seed and then watering it....frankly, i'm exhausted.

What I would like to do tomorrow, my last free day before going back to work, is move a small viburnum I planted a few years ago (3?) in the wrong place, where most of the sun is blocked by larger shrubs. It's also in the middle of the lawn and just another thing to have to mow around. I'd like to move it to a spot that opened up in the back yard, against the stone wall. A tree came down in a major storm and it would seem to be a good spot for it.

Here's one of the bluebirds frequently seen in my yard. They're nesting in the box... hope you can see it...shot through the window...

So after spending $80 on virus repair last week, I was debating whether or not to ask for reimbursement from my p/t employer. I don't think I'd ever have gotten the virus if I hadn't been doing work-related research on a particular website for them.

I told them what happened this past week, without mentioning how much I spent for the fix, and I noticed the editor didn't offer to pay anything anyway. Maybe it didn't occur to her, but in hindsight, I guess I'm glad I didn't bother to ask, because the 4 of us (editor in chief, her #2 person, who does both payroll and stuff in the publiations dept., me and the other person who is also project editor like me) got into a rather frank conversation about the state of the publishing company.

It was the first time they'd had such a candid conversation with us. The building is for sale. There are 2 owners: 1 would like to see the company continue, in some form, while the other seems ready to retire. (They are both of retirement age now.) The building is huge, old, energy-inefficient and kind of falling apart.

The editor in chief said we know you guys are underpaid, well, guess what, so are we. And we don't know how long the company's going to last. She said she's mentioned several times that she'd be interested in continuing the business maybe under a new business model, where everyone was able to work at home f/t so they wouldn't need a brick and mortar location, or the expenses associated with it. She and the #2 person have been with this place for 20 years or so, and they both have a lot of accumulated know-how and knowledge.

They're working now on doing some modest upgrades to our ancient computers to enable us to work at home more than what we're doing now, but the owners don't have much to spend on it.

Right now, the publisher also still does writing workshops and conferences as well as the books we do, and it's only the books that are at least breaking even or making a modest profit. So that's good. But I am feeling this teensy little job, which nets me such a pitiful, but at the same time, essential amount of money, may also be in danger before too long.

It's hard to say. I am still looking for f/t of course, but it could still be some time before that happens. And this job, although it pays just $15/hr., (and which was something i considered beneath me when i first took it), is proving to be more and more essential to my everyday survival.

On the same day as we had that conversation, the other project editor confided in me that she was having difficulty fitting in the work at home when she was supposed to becus she's involved in a lot of work with her church and volunteer stuff and she gets sidetracked, plus she has kids. I privately thought to myself that, much as I like her, how great it would be if she resigned or something and I could convince the editor in chief that I could handle the additional work. I sort of doubt the other woman would give up the job entirely, but you never know.

My dad paid an unexpected visit up here. He stayed at my sister's and took the 3 of us out to dinner at the diner last night. I took home a roast pork, which I'll have for lunch or dinner tonight.

Then he came back this a.m. and helped me offload a small pile of brush at the landfill and at the same time load a small pile of mulch (yes, more mulch) into his pickup. I would have liked to take more, but I felt kinda bad having my father shovel mulch at his age. We dumped that in my driveway and then the 2 of us loaded another pile of cut firewood from my driveway into his truck, using a ramp and hand dolly which really saved our backs.

Now of his 4 children (2 sons, 2 daughters), I've been out of work the longest. My sister works, but she is just scraping by, and the older of my 2 brothers is the only one who seems to be doing pretty well. He works for a pharma company now, i think.

The younger of my 2 brothers (actually, they're both half-brothers), was an auto mechanic who worked in someone else's shop, and was let go. He also managed the repair shop and all the other mechanics and was pretty good at it.

He's been looking for a similar position without much luck for a few months now, and my dad said he's decided he might be better off trying to buy an existing repair facility and going into business for himself.

As my father pointed out, my brother's former boss charged something like $85 an hour for labor, while my brother was only making $25 an hour. He has all the skills needed to run his own place, but lacks the money to buy an existing business. So my father said he's thinking of helping my brother out by taking out a home equity line of credit, with the stipulation in his will that, should my dad pass away before the money is paid back, which is probably likely, that my bro would have to repay the money back to the estate so that everyone still gets one-quarter of my dad's assets, which my dad estimates would be $200K total. (In the same conversation, he said the bank where he applied for the Home equity line figured his house is worth about $330K now, so i guess my father forgot about the house when he said $200K? Hmmm)

i never had such a frank conversation with my dad before about this stuff. I told him it was very generous for him to do that and that I was sure my bro would be very excited, and that this could really launch him in his own business. I am not sure how it could be enforced that my brother repay all the money to the estate, but it's not for me to pass judgement on what my dad does with his money, anyway.

I have my first case of poison ivy for the season, with some on my arm and my ear, which is driving me crazy with the itchies.

I met a very nice woman about my age who was also a poll worker when i worked during my town's budget vote. We have connected on Facebook and she asked me to help her out with a fundraiser she's doing for wounded vets. Which I will do.

I also really hope I can work the next referendum vote since the budget was voted down. It was a modest increase, about 3.5%, but the board of education was trying to make a case for spending more money at a time when school enrollment is down and they are actually talking about mothballing 1 or more schools becus they dont need the space!!! All this at a time when many like me are still struggling and out of work or underemployed.

So I really want to work the next election too, cus i need the cash. I left a message to that effect at the registrar's office and asked them to call me back to confirm I could, but they never did, and each time i tried calling Friday, I got their machine. So I'll have to try again on Monday, or maybe I'll just walk in there.

I am just starting my 3rd month with Citi Thank You card and have only managed to charge about $800 of the $2,000 i need to spend to earn $250 in gift cards. The grocery gift cards are fine, but do i really want to purchase possilby $1,000 worth of grocery gift cards? That will really throw my month to month expenses out of whack.

Just to follow up on another post, I did some quick research on which brands offer BPA-free can linings, and which do not.

For the record, Muir Glen, Amy's and Whole Foods STILL USE BPA can linings. Trader Joe's only offers BPA-free for corn, beans and canned fish and poulty but BPA chili, soups and tomato products.

Hain Celestial, which owns Healthy Valley, Earth's Best and Wesrtbae, and ConAgra, which owns Hunts, helathy Choicdr and Heinz, have STARTED using BPA free cans for certain products, but not all.

Not me, my computer. Last week I was supposed to work my usual 2 days in the office, 1 day at home, but because they were having some computer issues there, they directed me and other editor to head home early and work from home the rest of the week.

Which was cool, until, later that afternoon, I was doing research on a particular website and i suddenly got bumped out of the site. Then I started getting mutiple error messages with dire warnings, like "Warning: Extremely unstable." Everything I tried to do only seemed to make things worse, and then I was directed me to a website hawking virus repair, so I finally gave up. The virus actually wiped out ALL of my Word documents, Excel, Powerpoint, and oh yes, even My Computer and Control Panel. And IE. The only thing left was my Firefox. All I could see was a big white space where those programs used to be when I hit Start/All programs. I can't tell you how scared I was, since the last time I backed up was 2 years ago. No excuses for that.

So I called a friend who recommended a local computer repair place and I got it down to him right before he closed on Wednesday. I got it back Friday afternoon and he saved all my files, although they are now in different places and I haven't had time to rearrange stuff. I also had to recreate all of my IE settings and favorites, but that was small potaotes compared to what might have been.

He charged me $80, which I considered a bargain, plus I paid another $40 for 2012 Norton Anti-Virus. Umm, no, I'd let an old version expire without renewal. He said having had anti-virus software installed wouldn't necessarily have prevented the virus from infecting my computer, and he also said there isn't a virus program out there worth more than $50, so don't pay more than that, ever.

Another place I'd called had quoted me a price of between $150 and $200. At least I was able to pay wtih my Citi Thank You card, which I'm still trying to charge up to meet my spending goal.

So the virus really threw off my whole schedule, and I'm only now feeling back to normal. Instead of doing my publishing job Wed/Thurs/Fri/and part of Saturday, I ended up working a bit on Friday but also part if Saturday and all day today.

I was feeling anxious to try and get it all done by tonight, because I need tomorrow to do a variety of things, including grocery shopping, because then on Tuesday I'll be a poll worker all day long and won't have time to do anything else, and then it's back to the publishing job on Wednesday.

Yesterday, I took a bit of a break and a friend of mine picked me up and we headed north to attend an artist's opening reception at a gallery/frame shop. The artist happened to be my mother, and I hadn't told her we were coming, so she was surprised, especially so since she hadn't seen my friend for a good many years. We stayed and chatted with her and the gallery owner for a while, which i guess was a good thing becus no one else showed up while we were there. And R. ended up buying one of my mother's pieces for his niece and let me charge it to my Citi card while giving me cash for it. And the gallery owner got a cut on the sale with a commission, so 3 of us benefitted from R.'s one act. Oh yeah, and his niece gets a present!

On the way home, we stopped for a few slices of pizza.

We're getting some much needed rain today, but it sure is dark and dreary, and a bit raw. Feels like March.

I made some banana walnut bread today. Watched an interesting movie last night, Across the Universe. If you love Beatles music, this one's for you. It's kind of like a rock musical with a movie plot.

Not really looking forward to Tuesday, but I'm doing it for the money. It's a long day, 5:15 am to 8 pm, and you can't leave the building but you're still responsible for your own meals, except breakfast. Some people have a spouse who will bring them their lunch or dinner, but I'll have to figure out something to bring that doesn't require cooking (no stove). Just a sandwich or something.

Luther has a penchant for prying open closed doors, anywhere in the house.

He started in the kitchen, finding the cabinet doors quite easy to pop open.



The first time I came home to a kitchen full of open cabinet doors, I thought someone had entered the house and helped themselves!

Now, I have to keep the cabinets above the refrigerator closed with a rubber band.



Cus if Luther got in there, he'd probalby knock down the CFL bulbs I have stored there. Not good, with the mercury they contain.

He's even figured out how to open this cabinet! (Sorry, out of focus.)



Along with this barnboard cabinet. Notice the latch on each is a little different.



And this is my darling Waldo, looking so peaceful and relaxed.

The gymnast.

Today was a pretty good day. I did start off the day with a wasted trip to Aldi's, just the second time I've been there since they opened last year. I was attracted by a cheapie outdoor plant hanger, which I never got becus the sales circular I saw it advertised in isn't good for another week. About 80% of aldi's is processed food in a box, jar or can, but I did pick up some cheap onions and sweet potatoes.

I went to browse Home Goods with my $25 gift card, wandering up and down every aisle. While they had the usual pretty dishware and glassware, I saw nothing that I felt I MUST have, and was surprised I might be leaving the store without buying anything. That is, until I saw something I really liked, a pagoda-like structure, vaguely Asian, that stands about two feet high. Not sure if it's meant for the outdoors, but that's how I'm using it, in one of my perennial beds near the blue milkweed and lamb's ears. I'll have a shot of it tomorrow. I really love it, and it was just $25. I'm embarrassed to say what I spent several years ago online for a much smaller pagoda elsewhere in my yard.

in other news...

I have a gazillion daffodils in my yard becus the deer don't like to eat them, and just a single red tulip. Where I got that bulb I don't know, but when I planted it, I figured it had the best shot at surviving if I planted it near my front door. True, the deer don't come quite that close, but chipmunks do, and most every year, that little tulip grows and grows, inching taller, getting ready to bloom and then CLOMP. I find it beheaded one day by the darn chipmunks that patrol my yard. In 17 years, I don't remember seeing it bloom.

Until 2012...







Saw another good movie tonight, The Savages. A grown brother and sister (she's from NYC, he lives in buffalo) are forced to spend time together when their elderly father ends up with dementia and they have to find a nursing home for him. It's not totally depressing, and it's really more about the relationship between the brother and sister. Very realistically done, I thought. They weren't close to their father, in fact, they hadn't seen him in years, and they each come to grips with their unhappy childhood in different ways. It's got its sweet spots.

I also managed to fill in two woodchuck hole with some sod I was digging up as I expand the vegetable garden. I hope and assume the burrows were vacant when I filled them; I guess I'll know tomorrow if the clumps of sod are moved. Although I must say as I stuffed the sod down the hole (don't worry, there is always an exit hole, too so I'm not burying anyone alive), I thought I smelled a faint whiff of...skunk. But no one came out, so I don't know. Like I said, I should have a better idea tomorrow when I inspect the holes.

So I continued work in the vegetable garden, planting another row of lettuce and working to dig up the sod. I also had to dig a ditch to put in a strip of flashing, about 6 inches wide, in an attempt to deter the many moles I have. They're really getting out of hand and are making a mess of my yard, but I don't think I want to use the usualy pellets or spray, which are usually made of castor bean oil, since it is poisonous. and I've read that if you miss a spot when you apply it, the moles will all huddle in the area that you missed, and I don't want that to be my veggie garden, which I can't spray. so I could make matters worse with that stuff. The other alternative is live traps (or not), and I think I'm moving closer to trying that, much as I'd rather not.

Anyway, I don't have enough flashing to put all aorund my veggie garden, and it's a lot of work diggintg the trench/ditch to fit in in the ground.

I had the soaker hose going for a bit watering everything and discovered that the reason why the 2 previous soaker hoses I had burst could be becus I used them during the heat of the day. Apparently, very hot water will damage the hose, which is made of recycled car tires. I don't know why it would be any different than a regular garden hose, except that it is porous and i guess a thinner material, which lets the water soak through, rather than spray into the area. This is the whole point of a soaker hose. Having water seep into the ground is better than getting leaves wet, which makes it easier for plant diseases to start and spread.

But anyway, the directions said don't run it with very hot water, which I can deal with if I remember to just use first thing in the a.m., but then it also said not to have water just sitting in there, becus i guess again, the sun will heat it up and possibly damage the hose. But for gosh sakes, most people use these in a veggie garden, which is going to be in the SUN, and it isn't at all convenient to have to pick up and drain the whole hose each time you use it. There's got to be a better way. I may call the company to discuss.

I thought this was an interesting story about paying property taxes with a rewards credit card. Can't say I thought about doing it, but it's interesting to read.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/story/2012-03-26/paying-taxes-credit-card-rewards/53791056/1?csp=34money&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomMoney-Block+%28Money+-+Block%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

I seem to be creeping along at a snail's pace as far as earning my way to $250 in giftcards from Citi Thank You card.

Checked my balance this morning and I've only spent $479, less than a week away from closing out Month 2 in my 3-month quest to spend $2,000.

Part of the problem was that I got off to a very slow start in Month 1, because I had already received this new card and was still spending on another card to wrap up rewards on that one. So I got this one a bit prematurely, and I only spent $45 on this one in Month 1.

The only regularly recurring bills that let me pay with a credit card at no charge are my car insurance, homeowners insurance and phone/Internet bills. And of course I charge all grocery and gas purchases.

I'm going to revisit some of my other utility expenses, even the mortgage, to see if I can pay usign a credit card. Even if I incur a service charge it would be worth it. There may have been one or two bills I initially avoided paying with the CC due to a service charge of some sort, but a dollar or two doesn't matter, given the reward I'm shooting for.

At least now i know i have a backup plan, grocery store gift cards, if I have to.

Tomorrow I will be hitting Aldi's for just the 2nd time since it opened in my state. It's a little out of the way, maybe 30 minutes. I will also hit Home Goods to see if I want to use a $25 gift card I got from MyView.

Now MyView is the only one of about 5 different survey companies I do surveys for that offers gift cards only. I prefer cash becus it helps with living expenses. This is the 2nd gift card I've gotten from them and both times, I never got the card in their 4 to 6 week timeframe, and I had to get after them with emails and it was an all round pain in the neck. It took almost 8 weeks to get the card and i don't think i want to bother having to hound them for it. You're completely at their mercy. I have one more Home Goods gift card due in a few weeks and I'm quite sure I'll have to go through the same process, although I asked the customer service rep was it too much to ask to get BOTH gift cards at the same time, even though I redeemed them separately. Apparently, yes, too much to ask.

Thus far in 2012, I've earned $115 in gift cards, for either Home Goods ($50) or Amazon. Earned thru participation in either MyView surveys or a Communispace credit card forum.

I must admit that gift cards are a LOT more fun to spend and use, but really, I prefer cash, becus it goes right in my checking account to pay bills. Boring, but essential.

I currently also have $30 in amazon gift cards to spend, and this time I'm trying not to rush as I think I could do better than get $25 worth of black licorice, which is what i did last time. I have after MUCH browsing, decided on 2 books but there's a little left over and I'm trying to avoid or minimize shipping charges.

The books are:
1. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, true story (on the best seller list) written by a woman who lost her mother and goes on a long hike to come to grips with it, and

2. Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health

So tomorrow it's Aldi's and Home Goods and Tuesday I have brief training session for poll worker stuff on April 24, a bank deposit and getting more mulch.

Today, I'm not going anywhere. My only goals are:
1. one load of laundry
2. plant lettuce
3. pick up the house or other yardwork, if i'm up to it.

I saw another really good movie last night, Snow Angels.

When I see a movie I really like, I go online AFTER I've seen it to read what others have said about it, and I was surprised with this one that comments went to one extreme or another: either the reviewer loved it, or they hated it.

I picked this one up in a rush at the library, at a time when I knew I wanted another week's worth of movies to watch, but didn't have time to linger. I think the library was closing soon or something. So anyway, I just looked at the cover of this one and decided to get it. The cover has a picture of a pretty woman and another image of a man standing over and behind a kneeling woman. There was no way of knowing what the movie was really about, so all the twists and turns of the plot really took me by surprise and probably added to my enjoyment. It's a little dark, but if you don't mind that, definitely worth watching.

It's been 2 weeks since I interviewed for the news reporter job and haven't heard anything. I'm disappointed. Guess I didn't get it. Never head back from recruiter about United Health Care job and haven't heard back from client about more legal editing, which I thought I'd have this weekend. Also haven't heard a peep from real estate client.

So I need a break. It usually happens, just when there's absolutely nothing on the horizon, something pops up and I'm back in business.

Universe, I'm ready. Lay it on me.

I was irked to see my AT&T phone/Internet bill today for $50. It went up by $5, and I never make long distance calls on it.

But it went up last month as well, and when it did, I spoke to customer service and she found a $5 promotion which she applied to the bill and said it was good for a year, so my bill was to go back down to $45 a month ($21 for the land line and $25 for the Internet).

That $21 a month for the phone does NOT include long distance, but it's been no biggie becus I've been in the habit of buying prepaid phone cards at about .03 a minute, and I figured it was cheaper to pay that only when I make long distance calls, rather than paying a fixed monthly fee when I really don't make a lot of long distance calls.

So when the bill went up to $50 again this month, I called to complain and she said oh, the person you spoke to last month probably didn't see that you're already getting a $5 loyal customer discount and you can't tack on more than one.

Then she told me about their Emergency use only plan, which is just $7.45 a month (compared to the $21 I'm paying now for the phone portion of the bill). With this plan, all incoming calls are free, as are local calls out, but any long distance calls I make are .41 a minute, which happens to be the rate I would otherwise be paying under my existing plan except that I use those calling cards with a toll free number.

So, not sure if this was the right move, but I went for the Emergency use only plan. I don't have a cell phone, so i might be restricting myself too much, but i really liked the idea of reducing a monthly bill by over $13 a month.

I specifically asked about the calling cards i use with the toll-free numbers, becus i rely on these to make any long distance call. She said with the toll free number they'd be charged at .03 a minute.

So yeah, it would be on top of the roughly .03 a minute i alreaday pay for the calling cards themselves, but i still think paying .06 a minute per call will wind up being cheaper than a flat monthly fee that's assessed whether i use the phone or not.

Put another way, i could make up to 450 minutes of long distance calls a month (7.5 hours x .03/minute = $13.50, using my calling cards) and still pay no more than i'm paying now, and probably less. I find it hard to believe I would spend that much time on long distance calls.

If I didn't have the calling cards to use for long distance calls it wouldn't make sense, so if that customer service rep was wrong about toll-free numbers being billed at .03 and i actually got charged at the .41 a minute rate, then I'd have to switch back. She said long distance is anything where you have to dial a 1 before the number. But you have to dial 1 before a toll-free number, but maybe that's different.

What do you think?

I recently had a "lightbulb" moment when I realized that I COULD get the Chase Sapphire rewards card and not have to wait til I was employed full-time to be able to spend $3,000 in 3 months.

There are 2 reasons for this:

1. As someone pointed out here, if I find I'm running short of the target spending goal, i can always buy grocery store gift cards.

2. I took a look at last year's monthly expense sheets (you never know when these come in handy) and I could see that I usually pay my car insurance (1/2 of it) in July and my homeowners in October.

So if I time my application for the Chase Sapphire card in mid-July, I should be able to cover both big bills, which together come to just under $1,000. So that would be one-third of the target spend right there.

Right now, I need to focus on my current Citi thank You preferred spend, and again, I just might need those grocery store gift cards to hit the target.

If I do just the citi thnak you card and the sapphire card, I will have exceeded my target of $1,000 in cash and gift cards earned from credit card rewards in 2012.

Cool.

Can someone please get rid of this junk?

So I'm currently working to charge up $2,000 in 3 months on my citi Thank You card.

This is sort of a dumb question, but I've never done this before and I'm thinking maybe I could do this as I'm concerned I might not be able to spend the $2,000, as most of my utilities, for example, don't accept credit card payments....is there some reason I can't pay for one credit card bill by using another credit card to pay for it?

I usually pay all my credit cards with a personal check.

Well, since we all seem to have credit cards on the brain, I thought I would tally up my 2012 credit card rewards thus far in 2012.

February: Discover Card, $150 cash
March: Citi Dividend VIsa, $200 cash
Anticipated in May: Citi Thank You, $500 in gift cards

Total so far: $350
Total in 2011: $425

2012 Goal: $1,000

The cash I've earned so far has just gone toward paying my general living expenses. If I were working, it would be nice to treat it as fun money, but alas, that's not in the cards right now. It's more like survival money.

Today's my last free day before returning to p/t job tomorrow. So the only thing on my agenda is to collect another carful of free mulch at the landfill and spread it on the perennial bed running alonside my driveway.

I also want to call a contact who recruits people for focus groups for a certain company, to see if there are any going on.

Yesterday I spent several hours working in the veggie garden. There were already a lot of weeds growing in it and I needed to plant 6 baby broccoli seedlings my sister gave me on Easter. Last year, my broccoli was deccimated by worms making pinholes all over the leaves. A flying insect lays its eggs on the underside of the leaves and they feed from there.

So after reading about using tulle netting, the kind used for a bridal veil, as a cover for things like broccoli (it prevents the insect from laying its eggs on the plant), I priced it out and using a coupon was able to get 5 yards of white tulle for about $7. If it helps me get a bumper crop of broccoli this year, it will be worth it. It was a challenge to set it all up since I needed poles to hold the netting aloft over the seedlings and I didn't want to spend more money on poles, so i just made do with what i have and weighed down the tulle on all sides with small rocks.

It looks like a floppy eyesore in my garden, quite frankly, and my neighbors are probably wondering what the heck it is, but again, if it does what it's supposed to do, I don't care.

So I got the broccoli in, and also wrapped the base of each stem in tinfoil to prevent cutworms from mowing them down at the stalk. (You learn these things the hard way.) And I also planted pea pods, then hauled my very long hose down about 75 feet to the garden and gave everything a good watering. It's been very dry around here.

Today, it would be nice to get the lettuce in.

On my trip to get the tulle yesterday, I also stopped at Petco for a free can of Science Diet cat food, picked up some groceries on sale at Shop Rite and got another week's worth of DVDs at the library.

On the job front:
There's NOTHING going on right now, either freelance or otherwise. Waiting to hear on the news reporter job. Waiting on the legal editing work. So 2 things pending, but that's it.

I asked a friend of mine with a camcorder if he would be willing to tape me in a mock interview and play the part of a prospective employer. I'd like to watch the tape and try to pinpoint weaknesses.

I'd had a lot of interviews, maybe 1 a month or 1 every other month, but no offers. I know it's partly due to the sheer number of others in the same boat, but I also think I could greatly improve my interviewing skills. It seems I'm too easily thrown by chance factors out of my control, like, I don't feel a 'connection' with the person who's interviewing me, or I get an unexpected question, or like, at my last interview at the commercial real estate appraisal company, the guy interviewing me was so damn attractive and suave, it made me nervous!

I think I should be good enough at interviewing that I AM in control of the interview process and do a good job regardless of the other person's personality or other superficial things.

My unemployment runs out June 19.