It's just as well I'm staying inside all day, due to my cold, but I am getting just a wee bit stir crazy, since this is Day 3 of doing so.

It's coming down in sheets and the rain is blowing mightily. They said to expect 2 to 4 inches, and I'm just praying my caulking job on my 2 leaky windows hold. So far, they are. This is certainly the ultimate test.

I wrapped up my Xmas shopping online today. My sister's so difficult to buy for, doesn't give us any ideas and since she hasn't invited my mother or i to her home in at least 5 years, it's really hard to tell what her tastes are like these days.

But i found an interesting website (uncommongoods.com) and ordered a pair of dangle earrings made out of vegetables. I got the beet and mango version, 2 round disks, one smaller than the other and laid on top of the larger one. They dry the vegetables, slice it paper thin and then layer that on top of a copper disk. Very interesting.

I also got her 2 books she wanted, plus a collection of dark chocolate from all over the world. For my mom, I got flannel sheets, a cotton jacket and a new pressure cooker. I got my dad a slow cooker cookbook, but not sure when I'll give it to him. I guess if I don't get a job January 1, I can make a trip down there to Jersey and give it to him then. I also got my friend H. the same packet of dark chocolates, as she's a chocolate lover.

I'm still kind of sick, though feeling better. Maybe I'll have the energy to wrap a few presents on the dining room table.

I managed to do a new freelance assignment I got. I made myself do it becus i may very well need the $ given my current job uncertainty, plus, this is a new client and she'll pay me cash, $100 for an hour or so of work.

I also made my SEP-IRA contribution for this year. It's just for my freelance work and never amounts to much, though of course if I had thought to open it 15 years ago when I started doing freelance, it would have really amounted to something. But anyway, this is just year 2 and I transferred $300 from checking into it. The more tax-deferred investments, the better.

Holed up in the house...talked to my mother, talked to friend N., talked to friend H. Last night for dinner I dethawed a big bag of zucchini chunks from last summer's garden, pureed it in the blender, and added it to a Trader Joe's cream of tomato/red pepper soup, along with sauteed onions and garlic and some leftover brussel sprouts I had. Pretty good.

My plan for next week is to work an extra half hour each day so i can leave work Friday at 3 pm without losing any pay for doing so. Then I'll head to Ikea, which is a lot closer to my work than my home is. I want to browse the lower level; i hardly ever shop there due to its location an hour from home, but it occurred to me that would be a good place to shop for Xmas, altho i'm basically done. I have to say, the renewed job worries really take all the fun out of Xmas shopping. I can't really splurge as much as I'd like after several years of frugal Xmases.

...just a bad cold, but I hate being sick!

I finally had to take off Friday from work, which meant I lost $400, but oh well. I only plan on taking the Monday after Xmas off, and that's it.

I had been feeling relatively positive about my chances of getting this job on a perm basis. After all, I've gotten positive feedback from several avenues, and the 2 other temp writers hired have also left.

But they still wanted to advertise the job. I guess from a due diligence standpoint, they couldn't just say we want Patient Saver. They wanted to see who else was out there. But I learned recently that when they weren't happy with the quality of the candidates that the employment agency was sending them (they chose not to interview any of them), they decided to rewrite the job description and repost it. The problem is, they CHANGED the job description so that instead of it being a 100% writing job, which I'm well qualified for, they're now looking for someone with strong writing skills PLUS the technical expertise, ie, someone who can use this software program (Camtasia) and actually build out the tutorials they produce.

I don't have the technical background, though I could certainly learn it. They know that, but i guess they're looking for the "perfect" job candidate, if indeed someone exists with both the writing skills and the technical skills. Usually, people are good at one or the other. Maybe that's why most companies I've worked for have one or more dedicated writers, and several designers, but not people who do both. You're just using different sides of the brain.

So i was really crushed when i learned they changed the job description. I was told i'm still considered a candidate, but you would tend to think if they wanted me, they'd know right off; if they're still looking for someone better, i doubt they'd change their mind and come back to me.

So, the guy i report to on a daily basis was very kind to give me a printout from the company's careers website with a job he thought i should apply for. Even better, he said he knows the hiring manager and can put in a good word for me. I asked him if he knew something i didn't, that maybe i'd been ruled out for the original job (working with him) and he said no, but he confirmed there was now greater emphasis on the technical skills, and he didn't think i should put all my eggs in one basket. It's not his decision, but I'm sure he has input.

Anyway, i was very grateful that he was trying to help. (He would get a $1K referral bonus if I were hired.) He said, "I'd hate to lose you, but if this doesn't work out, it'd be better for you to move to a different job in this company rather than go outside the company. I certainly agree! He mentioned that the salary range for the 2nd job was the same as the job he has, whereas the original job was one step lower. I need to find out what that range is.

The thought of possibly going back to collecting unemployment is incredibly discouraging. I hadn't really considered that a possibility these past few months. Although you've probably heard that Congress extended unemployment for a year, my situation going back to unemployment would be much worse due to the lack of the COBRA subsidy. I was able to live on unemployment by cutting way back on expenses, and so I avoided spending any of my own savings for an entire year, no small feat. But with the lack of the COBRA subsidy, that wouldn't be possible, becus i'd be going from paying $178 a month for health insurance (for one), to probably well over $500 a month.

So what happens in the next few weeks is incredibly important and depending on the outcome, will mean a huge difference in my life. What a contrast. Scrounging again on unemployment, searching for work again for who knows how long, or landing a great job with a global leader and cushy salary that will help me accelerate my long-term goals of paying off the mortgage and building my retirement nest egg so i can retire earlier than age 60 (possibly). Such a stark contrast.

I didn't really have to go there, but I did. It was packed with holiday shoppers. I hit Macy's, Sears and JC Penny. I also enjoyed browsing Pottery Barn and William Somona, but come on! They're so freakin' expensive! As usual, Pottery Barn sets such a lovely table.

I find that Sears is the best value for clothes, although I often find things I like at Macy's when I have a coupon. I got my mother a nice cotton ivory jacket with hood that i think she'll like. I have to say my mom always looks so put together, she's good at layering and matching beaded necklaces to clothes and all that. I rarely buy her clothes for Christmas (always thought I didn't know her taste) but after she mentioned several times how much she enjoyed going through my own castoff clothing that I outgrew, I figured she deserves something new. Believe me, most of my castoff clothing was nothing much to look at.

At Wal-Mart I picked up some flannel sheets; they were such a good buy ($15 per set) that I got one for me and one for mom. I LOVE sleeping in flannel.

At Trader Joe's, I got a really cute stacked pack of organic dark chocolates from all over South America (the chocolates were the size of coasters, not rectangular), tied with a little ribbon and labeled with the countries they were from. Cute, just $10, and I think my sister will like them. She's so fussy and hard to shop for. I also got my mom some dark chocolate with hazelnut, and will use the chocolate bar as part of the gift wrapping on another gift.

I was looking for sleeveless turtlenecks for myself, to replace some stretched out "dickies" i got years ago at Wal-Mart. Couldn't find them. I know Dress Barn has them, but i don't care for the pleating they have below the turtleneck, which looks odd to me.

Last Tuesday was the last work day for the other temp writer. I was very sorry to see her go. We talked a lot and it made the day more enjoyable. We actually have a lot in common. She's back to being unemployed, this after just signing a one-year lease on her rented apartment and buying a new car with loan payments. There is a new writer, a "Dr." and a man, who starts on Monday. I was hoping for a woman I could befriend. I still don't know the status of my job, i.e., will they offer me a perm position by month's end?

I am trying to keep my Sundays sacrosanct, meaning no running around beyond my hometown. It just seems more sane to me, and the day lasts much longer. I don't get much time to just hang around and enjoy my home these days.

Maybe I'll make a lamb stew tomorrow. I'm getting bored with my food choices these days. I like to make a big Sunday dinner so i have some leftovers for the coming workweek.

I hadn't planned on making soup, but I went to Costco yesterday and was forced to dethaw a large bag of frozen zucchini chunks from last summer's garden, just to make room for what I got at Costco.

So...there it was in the fridge, ready to do something with but not looking too appetizing. I was afraid I'd end up with a watery mess on my hands, but it turned out pretty good.

I used some Trader Joe's sweet potato bisque as a base, blended the thawed zucchini into a lumpy puree and added that, plus a lot of sauteed onions and garlic. I also poured in about a half cup of grated peccorino-romano cheese. It's colorful, and i didn't even need to use the light cream I'd bought.

Today was the best kind of weekend day, a stay-at-home day where i didn't have to drive anywhere.

I did 10 minutes on the indoor bike (hey, that's double what i did last time!), then I went outside to refill the bird feeders. Then I swept up a bunch of leaves that always collect at the top of the driveway, and I swept up others parts of the drive, too. I raked leaves elsewhere (not too much), scrubbed a whole lot of bird poop off my car, then came inside to make that soup.

Yesterday i helped my mother unload her art from another show and carry it upstairs. I also got my 25-mile ratchet check after my tire rotation. I have to do it one more time after 500 miles.

I saw outside by the feeders that 2 different birds got nailed by a local hawk. I guess the hawk needs to eat too. Looked like it may have been a titmouse or chickadee.

I also spent some time decorating the house for Xmas. I have a lot of decorations that never make their way down from the attic, but I did put up one tabletop tree with ornaments, a ceramic light-up tree my grandmother made for me years ago and i decorated my "mantel" with greenery so it sort of looks like a woodland scene with birds, berries, sheep and little children dressed in their winter coats and scarves. It's the top of a glass bookcase I have that looks like it could be a mantel.




Outside, i picked up a birch branch that came down in a storm. Its branches had grown very twisty and curvy, so i stuck it in an elongated planter I have and threw a few ornaments on it. It's sitting in the driveway, at the stairway to the front door.

Oh, yes, I did 2 loads of laundry, too.

I have very few friends. But here's the kind of conversation I have with the few friends I have:

Ron is telling me how he plans to dispose of his assets, during and after his lifetime. He thinks he'll be gone within 10 years, due to the prostate cancer. He has no children, and the woman he married twice (once before she left him and once after she left him) lives in her own condo but comes to visit the dog regularly.

He has two nieces. We went to visit them yesterday. When Ron and I were dating, many years ago,we spent a lot of time with his nieces. They were about 10 years old or so then, and I was about 29. Ron was 40.

Now his nieces are all grown up, married,with cute little kids. The older niece is doing very well; she and her husband are both CPAs with good jobs. The younger one is a school teacher who married her blue collar husband when she became pregnant. Ron didn't care for him much, he mostly did odd jobs while his niece is a first grade school teacher.

Ron has helped them out a lot with money when they needed it. His niece wants to have a 2nd child, but her husband said he wanted to save for a big barn to house all his trucking equipment before that. So Ron has made them an interest-free loan of $40,000 which may not be paid back if he dies too soon.

So Ron, I think, isn't really giving them money for a barn, he's giving them money so that Megan can have what she wants: a 2nd child.Don't ask me why the 2 are connected, but i guess it was money issues.

He plans to leave all his money to his nieces and draw down the equity in his house thru a reverse mortgage. After his death, he said, his wife can have the house to live in, mainly so that she can take care of the dog. (They don't allow dogs where she lives.) But she won't get much money out of it becus he'll have drawn down most of the equity out by then.

He realizes now that she's not really his partner, and probably won't be. He's finally realizing he's not getting much out of the relationship with her. He doesn't feel he can rely on her to dispose of his belongings after he dies, so he's made that a stipulation as part of the $40K loan he gave his younger niece, that they would have to agree to dispose of his material possessions.

He's still legally married to his wife and he's on her health plan til he turns 65 in a few more years. She had a slew of very serious health problems which he helped her with; now she's on disability. He was comparing my personality with that of his wife, wo's very different from me. He always makes me feel good becus he says out loud his assessments, which are that i've worked very hard over the years, i have a nice house and live in a nice town and now i have a very good job.

He's very good at validating the stuff you've done well. You're a spark plug, he said. A spark plug! Ron, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me! I'm a spark plug! I actually got Ron to laugh, something that's hard to do these days.

After the cyber knife surgery failed to eradicate Ron's cancer completely, Ron went on estrogen hormones a few months ago, which is supposed to suppress the growth of the cancer. He can only stay on that for 3 years, and then it stops working. So he has to spend 3 years hoping they come up with something else that will work becus that's pretty much his last option. In the meantime, the estrogen is making him put on weight, and he already was overweight to begin with. He's growing small breasts.

And, I learned yesterday as we were driving home from his nieces, he also has a sleep disorder that makes him suddenly feel like falling asleep.

I remembered back to when we dated that he always fell asleep at night within minutes of his head hitting the pillow. Once, he even fell asleep during sex.

He kept saying it was sleep apnea, but i think it has a different name. He started fighting falling asleep as he drove us home. It might partly be due to the estogen, I'm not sure.

But I realized he was falling asleep becus he started slurring his speech as he was talking. At first, I thought he was having a heart attack. I looked at him and could see he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He opened the window for fresh air, and i put my hand on his arm to shake him. I was scared to death. He said he would stop at the Dunkin Donuts a few exits down the road and wouldn't pull over. We made it to Dunkin Donuts, he got caffeine and seemed better. He agreed to take the back roads the rest of the way home so we could avoid the highway, and then he even agreed to let me drive. I was greatly relieved.

So that's how we made it home. Now I have something new to worry about, that my friend's going to crack up the car someday.

Joan, for some reason I can't post a reply to my own blog. I had the same problem trying to comment on someone else's blog today, but anyway....


it's called a Bell bicycle trainer. Here's a link to where Amazon is selling it...

http://www.amazon.com/Bell-Motivator-Indoor-Bicycle-Trainer/dp/B000AAYBWS

I think it's too chilly for outdoor riding now, Apprentice, but maybe we get an unexpected warm day...

I was thinking a TV would be good, but there's no room for the bike in my bedroom or kitchen where I have tvs. There's a cable hook-up in the family room, but i close that room off in winter. I may consider having a cable line installed in the spare bedroom. Or maybe i should just have it done in my office. Hmmm, ill have to think about that one...

OK, here it is, all set up in the spare bedroom.

I donned my sweat pants and, to be honest, just a bra (I was planning on working up a sweat) and hopped on this morning. It was pretty easy to pedal without real hills to worry about, so I put it in the lowest gear possible, the kind you'd use if you were going down a really long hill.

Even then, I could tell it would probably take a while to really get my heart pumping. It was a little on the noisy side, like a pretty loud hum. I think it scared Waldo. I want to try putting some extra carpet padding I think I have in the attic under the trainer to absorb some of the vibrations and make it quieter.

So after about 10 minutes of mindless pedaling, I got bored and hopped off. I hope I can put in more time without getting bored. If I were doing it at a gym, i know from previous experience that personal "pride" keeps me exercising longer, cus you don't want to look like a wuss. Of course at home, it's so much easier to bag it, as my very first 10-minute ride demonstrates.

Well, good thing I didn't sink a lot of money into this......

I spent all day today indoors. Just didn't feel like going outside in the 40 degree weather. I enjoyed just puttering around the house doing different things plus, taking a very long mid-afternoon nap felt quite luxurious. I'm really enjoying indoor time now that I'm not forcing myself to freeze my butt off at 62 degrees or so. 67, I'm finding, is very livable. I think it will be worth a couple of hundred extra bucks if that's what it ends up taking. Doesn't sound very frugal, does it?

Normally, an oil tank fill-up in the summer will last me til early January, but I suspect I will be filling up in December. We'll see.

I was trying to help my mother pin down what kind of pressure cooker she wants for Xmas to replace the one she's had for 44 years! 4 quart, stainless steel, 2 handles...

I bought my dad a cookbook filled with slow cooker recipes. I didn't know he was using a slow cooker, but it came out in conversation a while back, so I hope he would use the cookbook, I don't know. It was only $8.

My friend left for Florida early this a.m. for a week so I'm on my own this weekend.

I feel like I accomplished some cool stuff, aside from the usual chores.

I stopped in at a church fair and saw that one of the items in the silent auction was a (used) thingamajig that converts your regular bicycle to an indoor stationery bicycle.

I have really been wanting to avoid the usual winter weight gain this year and had been pricing these items online to the tune of $150 or so.

Now if you know how silent auctions work, it's pretty easy to get what you want. You can just place your bid toward the end of the auction, which is what I did, for $22. Then because it was just another half hour before they gave away the auctioned items, I sort of hung around and kept my eagle eye on that particular item. Cus if someone else signed up to bid, I could just bid again...they only required that subsequent bids be in at least $2 increments higher. But no one else bid after me, so I got it and I even got it working after dragging my bike up from the basement to the spare bedroom upstairs. It seems pretty sturdy; I hope it doesn't damage my bike in any way. So i saved quite a bit of $$ on that thing.

Now I have to use it!!!!!

After getting my big ladder out last week to caulk a leaky window, it appears to have held through a recent rainstorm. But I awoke early one a.m. last week during that rainstorm and i thought to myself, gee, that rain sounds like it's IN the house. And in fact, it was dripping through another window, this one in my bedroom.

So this a.m. i caulked up the 2nd leaky window. I've done this many times, altho it's usually the other window in my office. The caulk seems to hold for a few years, and then it leaks again. But anyway,the bedroom window was MUCh easier to deal with becus i was able to climb out my bedroom window onto the relatively flat roof over the family room to do the work. No ladders.

I also filled up the gas tank (weekend ritual), got a large, interesting bluish glass vase at Home Goods and groceries at Shop Rite. I treated myself to a big piece of wild sockeye salmon, which i'll share with the cats tonight.

I interviewed with HR at the company I'm doing the contract work with, for the perm job. It wasn't much of an interview, he only asked me 1 or 2 questions, so i'm hoping that's becus he knows they want me.

It's still a little unnerving becus they interviewed several people from the outside for the 2 positions. I hope it's not for the one I want. Still in "wait" mode, as in, I'm waiting for an offer sometime this month or next.

Does anyone have experience doing temporary contract work and then negotiating for the perm position? What I don't know is how much higher or (likely) lower the perm salary may be compared to the temp job? I'm making $104K now. How much would you advise I ask for?

Since starting the temp work in mid-September, I've been nearly doubling my mortgage payments and have started to save money on top of that, altho only $500 a month and I think I can increase that amount.

I'm not sure where my mortgage balance is now, but the goal is still to get that thing paid off ASAP so i can fully concentrate on retirement saving, the ultimate goal being to retire well BEFORE age 60. Like age 55 would be great, but I would have to really ramp up the savings to do that, and not sure it's at all possible.

I am taking Tgiving and the friday after off and am really looking forward to the first time off since starting the job, but it will also mean the paycheck after the next one will be substantially smaller as that will just be a 24-hour week, not 40.

If I end up getting the job, it won't really matter, but it will matter a lot if i don't becus i'll be impoverished again and need every penny.

I spoke to my friend Ron briefly today while i was waiting to collect on the silent auction thing...we may go for a little road trip on Friday after Turkey day to visit one of his nieces, who has a baby now. i haven't seen her for many years; she was just a young girl when i was dating ron....she probably has only memories of me and him always arguing. That's something i regret. Ron and i are opposites in many ways, but he's a good friend now, albeit one i seldom see these days.

Last week I wrote a letter to the editor of my local paper opposing the proposed construction of a new 6-bay fire station near my neighborhood. It's very close to a busy intersection that is bumper to bumper during rush hour and in a residential area.

The fire company's current fire station has structural integrity problems and for some reason they don't want to rebuild in that location, nor do they want to go to another area of town where's there's plenty of space, a road that's equipped to handle fire trucks and no residential nearby.

A chiropractor who's involved in fighting the proposal saw my letter in the paper and called me last week, asking if I'd be willing to help collect petition signatures.

Of course i said yes, so i spent about 2 hours this afternoon walking around my neighborhood getting signatures. I feel energized by all the support and positive energy I got from people. 8 out of 10 signed the petition.

Then I had to run home cus my mother was meeting me here at 4 pm for us to exchange a few things. Then as she was leaving one of the neighbors who got my note in the door called me and said they wanted to sign, so my mother gave me a ride down the road to their house and back.

Do you remember my telling you that the company I'm working for as a contractor for 3.5 months terminated the other writer on day 6 of his employment? Well, the 3rd writer has also been let go, although they're giving her until the end of the month. (She was supposed to stay til end of December and of course, she, too, was hoping for a perm job after that.)

So that leaves me. The have yet to offer me the job on a perm basis, but I'm counting on their doing so. They had advertised the job externally as well. I plan to ask about what's going on before Thanksgiving. The other writer is upset but she's also a very upbeat person.

I happen to like the other writer. We have a few things in common: we're both around the same age, not married, no kids, and we both are into eating healthy and hiking. Altho she's very outgoing, I am not.

In the meantime, i was able to access the healthcare coverage options for employees on the company's intranet site. It had all the info on the plans except the prices, which vary depending on what grade level your job is. (Why would that be? Have higher paid employees pay more, maybe?)

But they have so many choices: 5 different health insurance plans, 2 dental plans and 2 vision plans, plus the health savings accounts. Carrrier is Aetna/CIGNA. I've never had them before, but anyway, you get to choose a plan depending on whether you want 90% coverage and higher monthly premiums or low premiums but higher co-pays, basically.

Today, prior to my signature-collecting, i got up on a ladder to try to address a persistently leaky window on the 2nd floor. The ladder is BARELY long enough for me to reach the top of the 2nd floor window and i hate getting up there. It's really not safe, but there's no one else to do it.

As has been the case before, i examined window trim where I'd caulked before and for the life of me couldn't see any obvious spot where the water was coming in. When it rains heavily, it drips from in between the inside window and window trim. Generally my caulking lasts a year or two, and then it starts leaking again. So I caulked heavily on the outside anyway. This will be the very last weekend, I'm sure, when it will be warm enough for the caulk to dry, so I caught a lucky break. Assuming that caulk plugs up the leak. Otherwise, I'd have to deal with the problem until spring.

After dealing with the leak, I reattached 2 loose house shutters, mowed up all the leaves in the backyard, got my car serviced at the dealer (oil/filter change, check brakes and battery) and picked up some groceries at Shop Rite. I also topped off the gas tank and did a load of laundry.

Which takes care of most of my chores, so tomorrow is fun day when i go to a craft show with a friend.

The boys were really spoiled by having me around all the time this past year when I wasn't working. So now that I'm back to work f/t, I actually feel guilty, after leaving them to fend for themselves all week long, when I run around and do my assorted errands on the weekend.

So this weekend, I invited a friend over to show me her yoga moves. She's been trying to get me interested in it for years, but in the past I'd always figured that if I was going to dedicate some time for exercise, I'd want to do something cardio, and get more benefit, out of it.

But yoga seemed like just the ticket after acquiring a stiff neck from sitting in front of the computer at the office. And I figured Luther would appreciate having the extra companionship.

So we spent a good 1.5 hours doing yoga positions in my living room with classical music on in the background. I do really like how loosened up I feel. I have a lot of strength from mowing the lawn and such, but I've lost a lot of flexibility over the years, I think.

I let my friend sample the chili cooling on the stove (made with homegrown tomatoes and dried beans). We also had some organic apple cider and a berry crisp I made using blueberries and wineberries I picked in the yard and froze. It was yummy.

My friend M. called earlier in the day and we had a long conversation. He wanted my opinion on whether he should declare bankruptcy and how it would impact his credit. He's about 30K in debt. He's back to work now, too, but his is also temporary and unlike mine, where I have a good shot at the perm position, his will probably end at the end of the year. He's working in the city and making very good money, at $60/hr. but no health insurance.

Now it's getting dark and it's not even 5 pm How depressing.

Ahhh. I bought myself a Filter Stream HEPA air purifier.

Never considered getting one before, but now that I've got my heat on (forced hot air), it sure blows a lot of dust around. Add 2 shedding cats to the mix and I figured it might be a good idea.

Anytime I change the bed sheets I see all kinds of dust particles floating in the air, and it occurred to me i was breathing that stuff in.

With the cats, I really should be vacuuming weekly, but I tend to vacuum maybe once every 3 weeks. Housecleaning's not really my thing....

I went to the Energy Star website to pinpoint which brands and models were the most energy-efficient. There's quite a wide range. Some of them cost more to run than a refrigerator!

I got a very good one and I'm very happy with how quiet it is, too. What's more, it has a built in reservoir and you can put in different air fragrances. It came with 3: lavender, citrus and grapefruit. The lavender was too strong for my taste but the others might be nice.

Today was a pretty decent day. I went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on another month's supply of Fancy Feast, ($75) bought a pair of work slacks (dark purple) at Marshall's for $17, browsed Home Goods, topped off the gas tank and picked up some hairball treats for the boys.

I lounged around the house enjoying my free time and did some laundry and also vacuumed. I refilled the bird feeder and the suet feeder. Nothing too strenuous.

I'm feeling very liberated since telling that old freelance client of mine it might be a better idea if he wrote his case study himself, and that I'd still be happy to "polish" it for him. I was relieved when he wrote back and said the same thought had occurred to him, so no hard feelings, I'm off the hook and editing is a heck of a lot easier than starting from scratch.

My work weeks sure fly by pretty quickly. Still, I'm very much looking forward to my first time off when Tgiving rolls around. I'm taking the Friday after off too, and am looking forward to an extended break. I won't get paid for it as a contractor, but I'm feeling somewhat more confident i'll get the job in 2011 anyway, so why not take the holiday time off and enjoy it.

I've really gotten to like the other temp writer who was hired, and it's looking like only one of us will end up staying into 2011. I'm hoping it will be me, but I will miss her. I hope we can solidify our friendship so that we stay in touch afterwards.

I think I have a good reason to do so.

Here's the story....

I've had a business relationship with a freelance client that goes back 20 years. He gives me work sporadically, not regularly, but he always calls me when he's got something. He's my oldest freelance client.

Shortly after I started my full-time job, he came to me with a request to help him write a 40-page or so case study, which would likely earn him an educational designation in his field and be a feather in his cap, as only 200 others have this designation nationwide.

He started writing the case study a long time ago but other things get in the way. Like work and family.

So when he asked me to help, I explained that with my new job, the only time I could work on his project was on weekends, He was ok with that and said his goal was to have it done by end of the year. So I reluctantly said yes, becus I, too, feel incredibly stretched for time since starting the new job. It pays very well, and I don't need to freelance anymore, but my full-time job is temporary thru year's end and I may or may not get the perm job.

If I don't get the perm job, then my old freelance client's work would really come in handy. But if i get the perm job, i don't need it, and frankly, there are only so many hours in my weekend and i don't relish the thought of working every weekend thru year's end, which is likely what it would take to get this case study done.

But when I agreed, we scheduled a phone call to discuss the project. I spent a fair amount of time prior to the call reviewing all the emails, attachments and URLs he sent me. I was ready to go, and i'd blocked out part of my saturday to get started on this project. When he called me, he said he wasn't really prepared to talk in detail and could i wait til the following weekend.

Fine. Next weekend he called and again he wasn't ready. He said he had some handwritten notes he had to type up and then he'd email them to me. Never got them.

This was the 3rd weekend. We have a standing 8:30 a.m. Saturday date to discuss the project each week. He sent me an email Friday night saying he was meeting with a builder and couldn't make it at 8:30 a.m. and was there an alternate time We could talk? I emailed him back last night and said how about 4 pm. I never got a reply from him, but at 4 pm I was here at home, waiting for his call. It never came.

So we've had 3 weekends in a row when he's been a non-starter. I'm a little annoyed. He's procrastinating. I realize how hard it it to do this on your free time, but it's my free time too!

I think at this point I'm going to tell him very nicely that he'd probably be better off doing this himself. The problem is that i can't do any of the writing until i basically get a brain dump from him on what he wants me to say. And this requires we coordinate our time, which hasn't been working so well.

I feel I have a better than 50/50 chance of getting this perm job. No guarantee, but i i have such a full plate i really don't want this freelance job regardless. And if i do get the perm job, I'll immediately have to start studying for a securities license (FINRA Series 6) as passing it within 3 months of my start date is a prerequisite of keeping the job. So I'll have even less free time in early 2011 than i do now.

So whaddya think? I hate to leave someone high and dry, but he hasn't made much effort.

So, I've been at the new job for about 5 weeks now. Aside from the guy who's been giving me assignments (he's not my boss), I still haven't really gotten any feedback about my work from anyone in the company. I think becus everyone's so darn busy, and no one person has really taken ownership of me.

Instead, the positive feedback's been filtering back, not to me, but to the agency that found me. Nice, but I'd still like to hear it directly from the people who count.

So the agency guy told me I need to apply for my job (on a perm basis) on the company's website. He noted that the other writer hired when I was, already did so. (Funny, she didn't mention that to me.)

The agency guy said, I don't want to make you feel you're competing against so-and-so (the other new temporary writer). But of course, that's exactly the situation. He more or less confirmed there was just one job opening, exactly what I suspected...that they hired 3 temp writers and never planned to hire more than one of us.

The agency guy reiterated that they're very pleased with me, I've exceeded their expectations and that as far as competing for the perm job, "I'm ahead of the curve." He rattled off 5 or 6 things about me, he said, that were a good fit for them, the right work ethic, the right personality, the right this and that. He even thanked me for reflecting so positively on the agency. I still feel anxious. So much is riding on this job.(As for my "personality" at the office, I would have to describe it as "scared little rabbit."

If I get this job, I can pay off my mortgage in 3 more years, not 6, and it won't be much of a hardship. I don't have to freak about health insurance costs, which would exceed $500/month if I have to go back on COBRA, sans subsidy. I can also save a lot for retirement. I can ease up on the scrimping.

So now I know not only is the job being advertised internally, it's being advertised externally as well. To the world, in other words.

Funny, the agency never mentioned that. She just said if they like me, they will hire me on a perm basis. Guess that was the carrot. Shame on me for not questioning her more closely, but there's something about a lack of work for 12 months that makes you skip the hard questions.

Of course, I'm still racked with ambivalence. I tell my friends and family I'm the World's Most Reluctant Employee. Cus I'd really rather not be working at all (or at least full-time).

I guess half the population shares that sentiment, so I'm not alone. So I know, of course, that if I get the offer, I WILL take the job. It's just that I need to whine a little. Thanks for listening.

I REALLY wanted to go on the foliage train ride with my friends today, but I had a few obligations that made that difficult.

Namely, my oldest freelance client, who wants me to help write a case study for him. We had an 8:30 am conference call and he wasn't really ready to talk about the project (2nd consecutive week). It didn't really matter, as he'd also assigned me another blog post, so after I hung up from him I spent 2 hours writing that up. Mission accomplished.

I had about 30 minutes time to run to meet my friends, but I needed a break from the writing.

So after a light lunch of pea soup, and after waiting for the caffeine from a cup of tea to kick in, I decided to get started painting my office.

Several years ago I wallpapered 2 of the walls, and that's when I planned to paint the other 2 walls becus they no longer matched.

That's how long it's taken me to doing this, but I took advantage of some paint on sale at Ace Hardware and bought a gallon of paint that ended up costing just $8.

As usual, the blue on the swatch looks "different" than the blue on the walls, but I'm still fairly well satisfied with the results. Out with the dingy yellow, in with the sky blue. It only took me 3 hours, and all my furniture is back where it belongs. I turned the heat off and the opened the windows to ventilate, and I'll have to close the windows soon.

Tomorrow I may meet my friend for lunch and hit Costco in the morning. I saw a good Netflix movie last night called "Mostly Martha." If you like "foodie," feel good movies and don't mind sub-titles, you'll really like this one.

I was watching the morning news today and I got inspired by a piece on autumn window box arrangements. It seemed so easy.

I decided to make my own arrangement, mostly using plants from my yard. Here's the first one:



In this one, I've used Eastern White Pine branches, pinecones, sprigs of winterberry, dried hydrangea flowers, dried fern pods and miniature gourds I grew and purchased from the store. Following the advice of the guy on TV, I sprayed a clear lacquer on the gourds to preserve them til spring. I used pieces of bamboo garden stakes to stick into the bottom of the gourds after cutting a small hole through the bottom of the gourd. This way, the gourd can be propped up and not fall to the bottom of the display. You could do the same thing with those wooden chopsticks, if you have some on hand, or with straight but sturdy tree branches.

Here's another one I did in a basket which doesn't look quite as good.



And I really like my new shoes:



I've got a big pot of pea soup cooking on the stove. I love the flavors of diced celery, parsnip, carrot, potato and onion in it. I used to also love to add sliced kielbasa, but my life is nitrite-free now, so I bought some nitrite-free hot dogs which I'll throw in. I would've liked some Italian sweet sausage, but couldn't find nitrite-free there, so the hot dogs will do.

I mowed the back lawn and part of the front, collecting a whole bunch of leaves up in the process, some of which I dumped in my veggie garden.

I also did my best to pour concrete in the long, wide crack that developed last spring at the bottom step of my front stoop. I did a rather messy job, but it if keeps water from infiltrating, even for just 1 year, I guess it will do the job. I'd been bugging my builder guy all year to do it and he's told me umpteen times he'd be over to do that and some other stuff he started, but he hasn't come, and we're toward the very end of decent weather for concrete-curing.

This guy is perfect in every other way that's important in a contractor....reasonable rates, very good work and actually quite a nice guy I enjoy talking to, but when it comes to just doing the job within a reasonable timeframe, that just doesn't happen. It makes it worse when he says he'll show up and then he doesn't.

I had been hoping to get together with a friend today, but her daughter was coming to visit and well, if I had seen my friend, I surely wouldn't have gotten all this other stuff done.

The weekends go by so fast.

Now that I'm working again, seems the only time I have to post is on the weekend.

I got my first full paycheck. Got paid $4,000 for 2 weeks, sounds great, right? Net of taxes it was just $2,724.

My weekends continue to be as busy as the weekdays. Not much time to stop and smell the roses! That should improve soon.

Today, I:

1. Waited for my freelance client to call me around 9:30 am and we just went over the basics of this big job he wants me to; we scheduled a weekly conference call for each Saturday at 8:30 am until this job is finished, which I'm guessing won't happen til end of year.

It's the last thing i want to be doing in my limited free time now, but this company is my oldest client and I want to keep them around.

2. Headed back to the mall for a haircut. I got bangs this time, and it's pretty short. I like it. $19 including tip.

3. Since i was at the mall and still feel i need to expand the wardrobe, I hit a shoe store where i picked up some good walking shoes that will look decent with dress slacks, Macy's and Sears. I had various coupons but didn't find anything at Macy's or Sears.

4. Then I hit Dress Barn, and bought 2 blouses and a corduroy jacket. Even with their coupons, I find them more expensive than other places, but they do have a good selection.

5. Filled up the gas tank.

6. Wal-Mart. Bought several cases of cat food, some insoles for my shoes and new wipers for the car.

7. Stopped at Xpect Discounts so i could buy their cheap suet for the birds. .59 a cake. Also got some other odds and ends there.

8. Stopped at the local craft fair. Bought a $12 set of pretty earrings.

9. Stopped at grocery story looking for organic apple cider but no one seems to have it this year. I have yet to try Stop & Shop.

Otherwise, work is fine. With my first full paycheck I transferred $500 to my online money market account,which had shrunk a great deal after I paid off a big chunk of my mortgage.

I will be throwing $500 into that account with each paycheck, so that'll be $1,000 a month toward savings, plus another $1,000 a month extra toward mortgage.

Here's some pix of where I work:



My company takes up most of the building. Yes, they are a well-known company.

In the image below, there's a large circle in front of the building where you can sit and eat your lunch, by that fountain. It's pretty nice.


Here's the new shoes i bought today:

Driving home from work Friday, I was so tired. The work week just catches up with you. I was looking forward to a quiet evening at home with my Netflix.

There was a message on my machine from my mother telling me she was in the hospital. I called the hospital but they had no record of anyone by that name being admitted. I learned later my mother had used her legal name, not the professional name she's used for years, and the one I identified her by.

So I sat around for about 45 minutes wondering where she was, and why. Then she called me and needed a ride home. She had a bad reaction to some meds the doctor gave her for some really bad arthritis in her hand.

I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the highway heading down there, adding about 40 minutes to a 25-minute ride. I learned the next morning from the TV news that the cause of the traffic, and the cause of the eventual closing of the highway, was this: a state trooper pulled over a car that had been reported stolen. The driver shot at the trooper. The trooper shot and killed the driver, and 2 others in the car ran away.

Turns out the driver had been featured last month in America's Most Wanted. He had been serving prison time in VA for armed robbery but escaped.

Picked up my mother, dropped her off at home and then home again.

My mother told me today she ended up going BACK to the hospital later that night! OMG.

Saturday am I had the furnace guy come and adjust the fan so the banging noise I've been hearing each cycle has stopped. Seems the home energy audit, where they sealed the joints on the ductwork, did TOO good a job, and the banging noise was actually the ductwork being sucked in and out.

After that, headed to the podiatrist for an old problem causing a sore foot..back in summer of 09, a shard of glass or cat hair penetrated my foot. The podiatrist I saw back then said the original irritant was gone, but whatever penetrated my foot caused a small callus to form, which feels exactly as if a small pebble is embedded in my foot. He didn't really do anything about it, so podiatrist this time did some scraping at it and put some medicated lotion on it; I have to return for another round in 2 weeks. It's still sore.

Ran down to the mall to return a 2nd blouse I decided I didn't need. Stopped at Trader Joes, filled up the gas tank and picked up groceries elsewhere as well.

Had dinner at a friend's house last night..swordfish, asparagus and homemade (not from a box!) brownies.

Today was "supposed" to be my easy-going day, but I ended up mowing the lawn, cleaning up the garage so I could park my car in it again, setting more mousetraps, sweeping the driveway and walked out on the roof over the family room to clear the pine needles out of the gutter. Then I noticed a good-sized crevice along the top of the garage ceiling where it meets the shared wall between the garage and basement. THAT'S how the mice are getting in, I said to myself. One spot, anyway. After considering nailing a board/trim along there, or caulk, I realized expanding foam would work best, and lo, I had a can in the basement. I did a very messy job of it, but it will work. Now that it's dry, I can try to cut off excess foam with a razor blade to tidy it up, but I'm too tired right now.

Got my first paycheck yesterday, It was a small one cus it was just for 3 days work. The next one will be a biggie.

On day 6 at the new job, the other writer who started the same day I did was terminated! Don't know why, just told they were "having some problems" with him, which surprised me becus he seemed easy to get along with and competent as far as I knew.

I guess it takes someone getting fired to reassure me I'm doing ok. Because after working largely on my own with very little feedback on how I was doing for 6 days, I started feeling uneasy because I really didn't know what they thought of me. And as a brand new employee, that's an uncomfortable feeling.

But after they let the other person go, I was reassured by both a staff person at the job and the recruiter that I was doing fine. The recruiter said the company was "more than ecstatic about the level of your job performance" and the staff person said they were "so happy with the way I fit in so quickly."

Wow. I was really surprised, but relieved.

In other news, September was a very spendy month, to the tune of $4,200 in expenses, due to some really big bills that came all at once: $638 for my annual sewer loan payment, $410 for Waldo's vet visit and $700 spent on clothing and foot wear for the new job. I know that sounds terrible for the clothing, but with that money I bought:
1. 4 pairs of dress slacks
2. 3 pairs of corduroy pants
3. 1 pair of boots
4. 1 pair of shoes
5. 2 sweaters
6. 4 blouses
7. 1 suede jacket
8. 1 light rain jacket
9. Lowered the heel on 2 pairs of shoes at cobbler
10. 1 outer wear vest
11. 2 bras, 2 panties, 6 socks

Sounds like I completely re-outfitted my wardrobe, but I guess it was mainly for 2 reasons: 1. the new job is NOT business casual,and 2. I put on about 12 pounds over the past year, causing me to go up one size. While I was out of work I didn't care how I looked so much and I got by in my jeans and t-shirts.

I started the new job and finished up my first week. The 1st day was probably the worst, mainly becus I wasn't kept busy the whole day and felt rather useless and unproductive.And being new, I was anxious to demonstrate my value. Plus, the circular floor plan confused me and I had trouble remembering which way was the kitchen, and how to get back from the restrooms without having an ID badge yet.

I met my boss the 2nd day. On the third day, I felt better, because I just decided to start working on a project we discussed the day before, even though I wasn't explicitly told to forge ahead, but she did say during my interview she wanted someone who could work well on their own.

I'm just used to being given specific instructions on what is expected of me, and that didn't really happen here. I don't yet know if that's her style, or perhaps she wanted to see if I'd take the initiative. They consider me a "consultant," but really, I'm just someone who has a lot of experience and was hired through an agency.

I emailed some preliminary work I'd done to my boss on the 2nd day (she works in another state and is only up in my office 1 or 2 times a week), and then started second-guessing myself that perhaps I shouldn't have done so becus she hadn't asked me to do it, she might think I was jumping the gun, or working a bit helter-skelter when we weren't all on the same page. Then I started thinking, gee, maybe they'll fire me.

So I was relieved when she emailed me back, made a few simple comments on what I'd written and suggested I run it by another person in the office.

When I showed him what I'd done, I also showed him more copy I'd done by that time, and getting some positive feedback from him was reassuring so that I'd have more confidence when showing it to my boss and her boss.

What I really liked about my new employer is they gave me a choice of what hours to work, as long as someone from the dept. was there while I was. So I moved my starting time back a bit (to 9 am) so as to give myself more time in the a.m., and perhaps more daylight. Nothing I hate more than 1. getting up in the dark and 2. rushing to get ready for work. Becus I have just a half hour for lunch, not the mandated hour i had at my last job, I get home a half hour earlier, too, which is great. Yes, I'll miss having a full hour to walk on my lunch break, but there's not a lot of places at the new place to walk without getting in your car anyway. And if I ask myself if I'd rather have an extra half hour at lunch, or an extra half hour at home, the answer is simple.

On my 2nd day there, I invited the other new writer who started the same day I did to check out the cafe in the building. We brought our lunches outside and talked. i discovered that in his last job in another city, he was working in the building right next door to mine. Then I discovered that he worked a year at another employer's of mine that I left 11 years ago. Small world. He joined about a year after I left, so we never met.

Becus I'm working on contract now, I've been asked to keep my weekly hours to no more than 40 hours, so this means I don't have to worry about staying late for appearances as so many salaried employees do.

The people in my group are very professional, but also very friendly and approachable. I have my own roomy cubicle and even that is better than the "open office, collaborative" environment at my last job, which really just meant NO PRIVACY. Ironically, my employer at that time got an award for its innovative, architect-designed office space, but if anyone had bothered to ask any employee what they thought of it, they would have said they hated it, becus we all did.

My first project is actually fairly interesting and will require me to review each of the 100 or so courses they now offer, in order that I can write a synopsis of it in the catalog I'm writing. It's a great exercise for someone new to the company.

The building I'm in is very contemporary, in a newer corporate park with lots of big companies. It's 10 stories high and the nice thing about it is that you don't see miles and miles of parked cars and parking lots becus we all park in low-profile parking garages. In front of my building is a large circular drive and in the center there are lush flower plantings, tables and chairs for employees to eat lunch in and a large fountain. It's all very nice.

I am feeling the results of having lived a year extremely frugally while I wasn't working. I spent a total of about $600 (!!!) on clothing the week before I started the job: 1. 5 blouses, 2. 1 lightweight jacket, 3. 1 sleeveless vest, 4. 1 sweater, 5. 1 suede jacket, 6. 1 pair of shoes, 7. 4 pairs of slacks, 8. a pair of corduroy pants.

The clothes were really needed becus as it turns out, they don't really dress business casual, altho Fridays you can wear jeans.

But I didn't stop there. Today I went to a craft show and bought a bracelet, a watch, a necklace and some earrings. The prices at several tables was unbelievably affordable. At one booth, they were selling gemstone jewelery sets of a necklace with matching earrings for $25!

Of course, we can't forget the $725 I spent on a new computer a few weeks earlier. (That was before I even got the new job.)

Clearly I am feeling a little out of control and I'd better reel it in. I can afford it now, but it's not my intent to spend all the extra money I make. I'll be adding an extra $1,000 a month to the mortgage payment and $1,000 to my money market account for savings.

I was looking forward to just chilllin' today, but shortly before the new job, I got a huge new freelance assignment from my oldest freelance client. I didn't want to turn it down becus I intend to keep freelancing when I retire and I don't want to destroy connections. So I said I could do it (it's a 40 to 60-page case study he needs to submit in order to get a very valuable license designation) but I could only work on it on weekends. He just wants it done by the end of the year, so he was ok with that. I intended to start work on it today but he wasn't home when I called. well, the ball's in his court now.

No, these aren't my measurements, they're my heat settings, starting today.

Yes, I joined the No Heat Challenge, but I figured I would allow myself one true luxury: not freezing my butt off in my own home all winter. It's truly one of the things I hate about winter, aside from the shorter days and cold outdoor temperatures, not to mention snow.

Soooo, these will be the warmest settings I think I've had.

Here they are, broken down by time sequence:

Wake up at 6:30 a.m., 66 degrees.

Leave for work, 7:35 a.m., 63 degrees.

Arrive home after work, 6:30 p.m., 66 degrees.

Evening cool-down at 8:45 p.m. and thru the night, 62 degrees.

In past years, I've had the daytime temps while I'm at work much cooler, in the neighborhood of 59 degrees. But one of my new cats, Waldo, has short hair and seems to get chilled very easily.

Since my recent experience with his infection has shown me what a challenge it can be getting him to the vet, I'd like to keep him as healthy as possible. No sniffles!

And the temps while I'm home have never been warmer than 65 degrees, so 66 will be living in style!

I start the new job tomorrow. Getting REAL nervous!

Yesterday I went to a Sustainability expo. The keynote speaker was one of just 26 certified trainers for the Transition Towns movement.

I hadn't heard of this before, but it's based on taking action now (rather than wait for politicians to get their act together) to respond to two inevitable events: 1) peak oil, which many say has already arrived, and 2) global climate warming.

It's not a question of "if," it's a matter of "when." Those few people who still question the science of global warming can't help but remind me of those idiots who say the Holocaust never happened.

There are transition towns across the country. There are more, I think, in the west, an area that always seems to be more forward-thinking than the rest of the country, save for Vermont and Massachusetts.

It's a grassroots effort where people use a community-based approach to conserve energy and natural resources, reduce fossil fuel dependence, shop responsibly and maintain a green home and garden. (Personally, I love the idea of getting together with neighbors to share use of certain things, like perhaps a lawnmower and other garden tools, bulk buying of groceries, etc.)

The great thing about going green is that green behavior is always good for your wallet as well as the earth.

I've always had an interest in environmental issues, but they tend to get put on the back burner while other things take precedence. However, I always try to incorporate green behavior in my personal life, by:

* avoiding use of the clothes dryer
* reusing my own grocery bags
* driving an old Honda Civic
* growing an organic vegetable garden
* turning the thermostat down in winter
* installing CFL light bulbs
* getting a home energy audit
* reducing junk mail
* driving less and combining trips
* maximizing driving efficiency by avoiding speeding, or accelerating or braking quickly
* eating less than 1 meat meal per week
* not living in the biggest house I could afford
* curbing spending on useless or unnecessary items
* pursuing a minimalist lifestyle, using only what I really need (this is a work in progress)
* recycling as much as possible, including certain plastics, metal cans, newspapers, junk mail and electronics
* using a battery-charged lawn mower and weed whacker
* finding ways to reuse items rather than tossing them in the trash (library donations, Craig's List sales, gifting to friends and family, Good Will)
* avoiding the purchase of one-use food goods in over-packaged, non-recyclable containers, or disposal paper plates and cups. Walking out of a store carrying my purchase of one or two items WITHOUT the bag (but with the receipt).
* Cooking primarily with my toaster oven/convection oven instead of the full-sized oven. Using the energy-efficient microwave often.

On my list of future things to do, I'd really like to start a compost pile and give up using my car more, but in this area, the car is King.

I'm also interested in the concept of "co-housing," but have yet to tour one of their communities in Massachusetts. The idea is that you give up your private backyard, and the isolation that goes with it. Instead, you dine together in a communal dining room,sharing responsibility for meals, and you share outdoor living space. I have mixed feelings about it, but it's something I'd still like to explore to see how it works in practice.

Today I will be caulking interior windows; the home energy audit I had 2 weeks ago revealed small loss of warm air in the the window trim that goes over the windows themselves. The cracks were too thin for the guy to caulk, but I'm confident I can do it myself.

Here are some random Thursday thoughts...

Briefly spoke to recruiter; looks like my start date for the new job will not be this Monday, but this Wednesday. Fine with me; it'll be a short work week and I can EASE into the f/t schedule. (I have a terrible time staying awake from about 1 to 4 pm and must drink gallons of strong tea.)

I found a dead squirrel in my yard this a.m. I wanted to make sure it was dead so I held off on burying it, but i guess i should do so before the torrential downpour tonight.

Went to Kohl's to do more clothes shopping for work and i found 2 very comfortable pants that with coupon cost $15 each. They have elastic waistband but look very professional. I think I'm all set on pants now. Still can't find blue shoes, but I did pick up a pair of good brown leather shoes I dropped off at the cobbler's. He lowered the heal by a half inch and it made a huge difference, so I let him have a second pair i have of the same shoe, in black. Gee, maybe i should give him some leather boots i rarely wear for the same reason; heel too high.

My neighbor's begun the process of paving his gravel driveway, which is about 200 feet long and goes alongside my house. Dump truck and other heavy equipment making a racket all day, starting at 7:10 am. HATE IT. They've left now.

Waldo is still shaking his head but now i think it's becus the vet put a sticky ointment in his ears which is sort of leaking out now. His fur's a mess, and he doesn't like the taste of it and of course I can't clean it up for him, although he will rub his head against me, so now I've got ointment smears all over me. Eww. He has completely forgiven me now, so that's good. No more stares that say, "You betrayed me."

I got a big freelance project from a longtime client; didn't feel i could turn it down altho i'd rather not be bothered with it now that i'm starting a new job. Somehow, I'll have to squeeze it in. I already told him I'd have to limit my freelance work to weekends, and luckily his timetable is "this year," so i have time.

I picked up a nice set of 9 glass food containers with locking lids from Costco today. $30 - $6 coupon = $24, or $2 and change for each container, which i thought was a decent price. I just don't trust plastic anymore, or anything made in China, for that matter. Sheetrock, anyone?

At Costco, I got in a conversation with a guy who was behind me in line but asked if he could rest his case of water bottles on my cart. We talked about BPA and he got into a story telling me about these shakes he drinks for breakfast with pea extract for protein, various fruits and flax seed.

I let him go ahead of me since all he had was the water. He said if you want to know more, give me a call, and gave me his card. Since he talked so much about smoothies, i assumed he was in the business of selling them or something, and I was surprised to see that "Karl" is actually a certified financial planner with offices in NYC, but lives local to me.

Was he interested in me or something? I noticed no ring on his finger. If so, it's been a while since i've been hit on! Wow. After passing 50, I feel completely asexual. How flattering.

I scheduled a vet visit for Waldo today for his ear infection after seeing that he would enter the open cat carrier to go after treats I threw in there.

Once he stepped inside, I closed the door very quickly on him becus he is SO quick, I didn't want him to bolt out of there.

He was very upset, but surely it was better than having the Cat Wrangler return. Now that was traumatic.

Anyway, the vet, who got his schooling at Cornell, seems to be very good. He used a gas mask over the cat's face to sedate him and thoroughly cleaned out his ears, gave him an antibiotic injection. I also asked him to check out his teeth and luckily, they were fine. No more teeth needing to be pulled. He gave me more antibiotics in pill form to start giving him. The culture results indicating what kind of infection it is won't be back from the lab for 10 days, but i guess knowing what it is would help indicate which antibiotic to give him, although as i said, he's got me starting him on them right away.

I thought I was prepared for a big vet bill. I was thinking $200-something. Umm, no, the bill was $405. I nearly keeled over. Let's hope I don't have to return with him.

Right now, Waldo is back home but hiding in the basement. I feel terrible becus I brought some food down there for him (I didn't feed him since last night becus i had a feeling they might have to anesthetize him to clean out his ears) and when i walked away to clean the litter boxes, I saw Waldo slink away to hide behind my well tank. In other words, he's afraid of me.

I sure hope he gets over that soon. I hate the thought that this would set him back. He's made such great progress. I also need him to accept treats from me so i can hide his pills in them. I doubt that will happen today but am hoping for tomorrow.

Today was the day I had to report for possible jury duty. When it was my turn to be individually interviewed, the judge was reviewing my form on which I wrote I'd been out of work for a year and just got a job offer last week.

She said, are you trying to say you'd rather not do jury duty? I said yes and she said to the plaintiff's and defendant's attorneys, in this economy, I'd be inclined to dismiss this juror. Do you have any questions for her?

Neither did, and so I was free.

The case would probably have been interesting. It was a criminal case involving a 44-year-old man (he was there during the proceedings) who robbed and cut someone with a knife on a street corner in broad daylight, 1:30 pm. I didn't feel much pity for him.

Hooray. It would have really put a kink in my plans for this week.

When I got out home from jury selection, it was such a nice day that i was able to sufficiently motivate myself to work on the door and 2 windows on the west side of the house, meaning, caulking and scraping the top trim above the door and windows, which doesn't last long since it's fully exposed to the elements.

Tomorrow I hope to repaint them.

I also started weeding the long neglected backyard perennial beds. I mostly concentrate on the front yard becus that's the part viewed by any visitors, plus it's sunnier and more open and I guess I gravitate toward that more.

I also planted 10 allium bulbs.

Tomorrow is painting those west facing windows, bringing the cat to the vet in the morning and on to Kohl's with a coupon to wrap up my clothes shopping in advance of starting the new job.

I still don't have a specific start date, though I'm planning around it being this Monday. Maybe tomorrow I'll email my contact at the agency and see if they've finished (or started) their background checks on me. Truth be told, I'll really like to have an additional week before I start, but don't know if that will happen.

If I had another week, I could possibly get more insulation in my attic and sneak in an overnight trip to see my dad. And maybe a single kayaking trip.

It was a busy day.

This morning I left for an MS luncheon sponsored by Teva Neuroscience, the makers of the drug I take. They usually have one of these a month, and since I wasn't working, I've attended 3 or 4 over the summer. They're usually held in a nice hotel and are dinner and a physician lecture, but this was a lunch at a rundown pizza joint called "Italian Pavillion."

Still, it was a free lunch. I had 3 slices (!) and a cannoli for dessert.

Afterwards, I dropped off a pair of work shoes at the cobbler's. I wanted him to take a half inch off the heel becus I find the ideal height for me is 1 1/2 inches; the heel was 2 inches, and it just makes me tired walking around in them after a while. His charge is $20, which I thought was a little high, but while I knew i could probably shave a few dollars off that by going elsewhere, this place is just a few miles from home. If I like how they turn out, I have an identical pair of shoes in another color and will have him do those as well.

Then I went for a mammogram.

After that, I stopped at the bank to make a deposit and also to buy some postage stamps (at S&S). Then I went to Wal-Mart to stock up on Fancy Feast for the boys so I don't have to make a special trip there once I start working.

After that I stopped at Xpect Discounts, the place I go to buy Revlon Color Silk at $2.99 a box, but for the 3rd consecutive time, I saw they were out of "Light Brown" and still hadn't restocked it. Annoying, plus I'm all out so will have to go to Walgreens, I guess.

I had to call a special court number to see if I indeed need to show up for jury duty tomorrow. It was confirmed. DARN. That really will screw things up if I get called; I was counting on using this week to do last minute stuff before I start work. I hope I don't have to waste the better part of a day hanging around there waiting to be called in. DARN

I was hoping to get Waldo to the vet finally for his ear infection. Another shelter worker loaned me 2 really large carriers. I've set them up in the bedroom and have thrown cat treats in there so Waldo gets used to walking in there. Once I have an appt. set up (they're closed on the weekends) I can simply close the door, SO much simpler than having the cat wrangler here, who, in any event, never called me back when I asked her for help a 2nd time, so I can only presume she doesn't really want to.

I'm trying to make every day count before the job begins. My start date is still TBD, but I'm guessing it'll be 9/20.

So yesterday I spent $200 on clothes. I got 3 pairs of slacks ($25 ea), 1 blouse ($10), 1 sweater ($52), a 1ightweight jacket and 2 bras ($14 ea). Everything was reasonably priced, except for that sweater, and I'm debating whether I should return it. I mean I like it, but I'm not in the habit of spending that much on one piece of clothing. I got everything at Macy's, and between my coupon and all the sales they have, it's sometimes hard to tell exactly what price an item will ring up at the register.

I was also looking for a good pair of shoes in navy, but could not find navy anywhere, except in suede which i don't like cus once it gets dirty or scuffed, it's hard to clean. I also wanted navy pants, but again, the clothing industry has something against this color, for I could not find navy slacks.

I think I'm going to get a half inch taken off the heals of 2 pairs of leather shoes I have. They're just a little too high to be comfortable in all day long. I meant to do it years ago, but at about $15 each pair, I hesitated. Now I think I'll do it as the shoes are in good condition.

Yesterday I also caulked, sanded and repainted the tops of the outdoor trim above 3 windows on the house. I'm glad I'm getting to this, though I'm not sure I'll be able to do the rest of the windows. Next I have the back of the house, which will be easy to access.

I started reading a big fat Nolo book on estate planning, just to brush up. I probably should do a review of variable annuity product features. It's been a while.

I made a BIG pot of chili today so I could use the tomatoes from the garden I cooked up yesterday. I had to use it today becus there is NO room in my freezer. So I added green bell peppers from the garden, plus dried kidney beans I soaked and cooked beforehand, plus onion and ground turkey and chili powder.

I just saw the second half of a charming movie on Channel 11 (WPIX) about the life of chidren's author Beatrix Potter. It starred Renee Zellwiger and it was just delightful with wonderful scenery. I was entranced.

I really need to lose weight. There's nothing like a department store dressing room mirror to make that painfully obvious. I've been telling myself to walk all day, but have yet to go.

I sold a pile of firewood to someone today for $55. I measured its length, depth and width and calculated it was about 40% of a cord, so I priced it low for a quick sale. Just one guy responded, but that's all I needed.

I went to the recruiter's today and filled out a bunch of paperwork for health insurance, permission for background checks and stuff like that.

It does appear that if I wanted to keep my COBRA, I'd lose the subsidy, so it would be cheaper to go with the recruiter's plan ($250/month) than COBRA sans subsidy (about $500/month).

I plan to call my COBRA administrator tomorrow just to verify I can't keep the subsidy if the recruiter's company offers health insurance, and that I can't get COBRA back if the contract job ends and no perm job materializes.

I will only be on the recruiter's health plan for 2 months. I'm not eligible until I've worked 30 days and then you start on the first of the month, so that means I wouldn't go on it til Nov. 1.

I'll be able to order the one med I take on an ongoing basis, the Copaxone, using my current plan, and it's a 3-month supply that would take me into January, when, hopefully I'd be able to pick up the employer's plan as a permanent employee.

So I may not even use the recruiter's health plan at all, but I'll still have to pay out a total of $500 for the 2 months' coverage just so I don't have a lapse in coverage. If I did, that would enable future insurers to deny me coverage of my pre-existing illness for a year. Don't you just love the ins and outs of our current health system?

I just need to pick between the POS and HMO plans they offer. I can't remember the difference, but I guess I'll do a quick online check to make sure that either or both list my current doctors as in-network. If my doctors are in network for both plans, I'll just choose the plan with the cheapest monthly premium.

Using paycheckcity.com to calculate deductions from my future paychecks there, I see I'll net $5449 a month. I can live on $3,000 to $3500 a month, so with that nearly $2,000 surplus I'm tempted to save half and apply the other half as a prepayment to my mortgage each month.

Tomorrow I'm going clothes shopping, but not before I do an inventory of my closet. I'll list how many pairs of slacks I have for instance, and can fit into them, and in what colors; same for tops. That way I won't accidentally duplicate what I already have.

I'm still about 11 pounds heavier than I was before I was laid off, and that bit of weight make a big difference in how clothes fit me. If I haven't lost that weight having so much more time available to lose it, I doubt I will once I go back to work. One can dream, though.

I got a job offer today, contingent on my passing the background checks, which will be no problem.

I spoke with the recruiter and will meet with her for the first time tomorrow to give them a voided check for direct deposit and fill out a bunch of forms.

She expects I will start in a week or week and a half.

I haven't even met the hiring manager (!), nor have they asked for references.

This is the full-time contract job that will last the rest of 2010 and then I would presumably and hopefully renegotiate my salary for a perm position with the company for 2011. My hourly pay will be $50 an hour x 40 hours = $2,000 gross a week.

Sing with me now, "I'm in the money, I'm in the money...."

I have emailed my contact at the other place I interviewed at and explained my situation and that if an opportunity existed for me at their company, I would need to know fairly quickly.

In the event they came through with an offer as well, I doubt it would be as highly paid as the first place, but if it was competitive and a decent offer,I might just go with them becus that job is a perm job while the other one is a contract job with no guarantee it'll go perm in 2011, although that's the plan and they don't think there will be a problem.

So I'll be curious to see if I hear back from the 2nd company, one way or the other.

September marks my one-year anniversary of my layoff in 2009. A year is a long time not to have worked, so you can imagine my delight and excitement at the thought of landing such a high-paying job.

Still, it's going to be a demanding job and I have all the usual feelings of nervousness about whether I can do it. The commute is longish (45 to 50 minutes) and I'm sure it will be an adjustment working for such a large company (about 2,000 people in this location).

But anyway, i spoke to my friend,my father and my mother about it and now i'm telling you! It was all I could do to restrain myself from yelling outside from my front door step, "I got a job!"

Soon, I will be an expert on all things estate planning-related.

I have been living like a pauper for so long, but you know what? I don't plan to change things much once I start; I plan to sock away the max, although 401k eligibility won't happen til 2011 if all goes well.

So, if you're curious how I made my $27, here's what I sold:

* 3 Beatles records for $3
* An unopened piece of florist foam for .75
* A VCR for $10
* An Indian style throw rug (small) $9
* A book I got for free, $5

I hung around the house most of the day waiting for the vet to call. The 7 days of meds for Waldo's ear infection doesn't seem to have done anything, and I'd left the vet a message asking if we could try something else.

Anyway, by the time he called, I didn't have time to bike ride to the farmer's market, but I did drive over. I bought a loaf of bread ($6) and 8 oz of pesto sauce ($8). Not cheap, but a treat.

I also made a quick drive over to Costco cus i was out of milk. I can no longer get 2 or 3 gallons at a time and freeze some as my freezer is completely full of garden produce. While there, I also bought a rotisseries chicken that i had for lunch and a fresh pineapple.

I was on the phone again with Dell tech support to get help in taking apart my old computer so i could remove and destroy the hard drive. I succeeded in removing it and then took out in the driveway where I proceeded to pound it with a hammer. The metal is hard and it took a while to really dent it up good, until I could shake it and hear pieces rattling around inside.

It was a hot, summer-like day; I believe the rest of the week will be much cooler,and more fall-like.

Tomorrow will be very busy: a run to the vet to pick up more meds and probiotics for Waldo, a dump run with my old electronics to recycle, helping my neighbor drop off all her unsold garage sale items AND I want to start work sanding and then repainting the top trim on my first floor windows. I noticed the other day when I was doing touch-up painting on the exterior from a ladder that the top of one window I was near was all peeling; if I let it go it will quickly rot as it's exposed to rain and snow, which in fact collects on it. It should be slanted or something, but it's not; it's more like a shelf.

It should be fairly easy to do becus I would only need to do the first floor windows; the 2nd floor windows are protected by the gutters and soffits and the first floor is easier to access by ladder than the 2nd floor. Plus, I only need to sand and repaint the top of the trim, not all the trim around the windows. So I figure I have 8 windows to do. I'll start with one and see how it goes. Of course, it'll take longer than a day to do but if I even do just 1 a day, I'll feel like I'm accomplishing something.

This week should be a good time to do it; no real rain forecast and cooler than we've had, but still warm enough for painting outside.

I've been picked (again) for jury duty in a few weeks, but i doubt i'll be chosen becus of a certain job i had investigating insurance fraud cases years ago. I think that will disqualify me, according to their questionnaire.

My days are always filled with things to do; I don't know how I'd squeeze a full-time job back into my life.

We must've spent 6 weeks getting ready for my neighbor's garage sale.

The sale took place on Saturday and Sunday, and my neighbor netted about $335. I brought a few things over and made $27. My friend Shawn, who cuts my neighbor's lawn, also sold some stuff.

At the end of the day, I put a few items down by the road with a "Free" sign, including a small sleeper bed, a wobbly coat rack, upholstered chair, ironing board and old filing cabinet, plus a real tobaggan. Every one of those things was taken.

Now she can park her car in the garage!

Tomorrow I'll help her load all the unsold stuff to drop off at either the landfill, Good Will or the Senior Center for their white elephant sale.

She's thinking about having her NEXT sale in the spring becus she has a houseful of unwanted possessions, and what we sold this weekend was just the stuff stored in the garage.

She said she might use the money to take all of us out to a nice lunch. (She had 2 other friends who showed up for the tag sale.) I urged her to spend it on something she's always wanted but couldn't afford, so now she said she might buy a digital camera with it. (She's always used those disposables, which are so not practical.)

All I can say is that it sure was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it becus I'm a natural de-clutterer.

Yesterday, I got up on the ladder and did touch up painting of three separate spots on the front of the house where the paint is peeling. Actually, the paint is peeling all over the place, but these were among the most visible places. I plan to forestall painting, or possibly vinyl siding until next spring.

I also got my new printer hooked up to the computer and I cut up the last of a huge 7-foot length of that Tree of Paradise branch that had fallen in my yard a month ago. I added it to the small wood pile growing in my driveway which I plan to try to sell on Craig's List for some cash. As soon as I calculate what fraction of a cord my pile represents, cus I know a cord goes for $200 around here, delivered.

Today I'll be biking over to the farmer's market for a nice loaf of whole grain bread. I may also read the local weekly paper at the library, a favorite haunt of mine, and I hope to hear from one or the other of the 2 jobs I interviewed with sometime this week.