I did some grocery shopping yesterday with next week's Frugal Fast in mind. (No spending of any kind all week long, and then I'll blog about it.)

Not that I spent any more, or bought any more, than I usually would have. After all, going overboard on the groceries would sort of defeat the purpose. It's like someone declaring a No Spend Day after going on a spending spree the day before.

However, I did snag some good deals at my favorite grocery store, Shop Rite. Ronzoni pasta was on sale at .69 a pound, so I think I bought about 10 pounds worth!. I also bought 2 pints of blueberries at $1.50 each. (They should come down in price even more as we reach prime blueberry season, but it is a short season and I love my blueberries, so didn't wait.)

I also bought some Edy's frozen coconut fruit bars (oh so good) and my favorite junk food dessert, those frozen ice cream cones. I got rice pudding, 2 mangoes at .99 a piece and some fresh tomatoes for my salad until my own garden starts producing. At Costco, I got 2 gallons of milk and a frozen bag of Tyson teriyaki chicken cutlets, which are great. Not that I'm expecting anyone to want to read through my shopping list, but oh well.

I"m still waiting for a callback from my presumed new crew leader in the town that's nicer than the city I worked in for one day, though not as nice as my hometown. I've been waiting since Tuesday and called another person who had spoken to him. I haven't been as aggressive about staying on top of this as I should have been, but you'd think the guy would have already called me if he needed help in his region.

I was at the library the other day and ordered some books I'm interested in reading, one of them being The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road May to True Riches by Jeff Yeager, and the other, How to Retire Happy, Wild & Free. And the other being Diet, Life Expectancy and Chronic Disease: Seventh Day Adventists and Other Vegetarians.

Ahh, carpenter ants.

Those large, black and ugly ants have been the bane of my existence in the 15 years I've lived here. I live in a very woodsy suburb and my own property is certainly heavily wooded as well. Carpenter ants just seem to go with the territory.

Each summer, they find their way into my home. I've found them in just about every room of the house, but they are most often in the kitchen. Of course, this requires the kitchen to be kept meticulously clean. Dirty dishes can't pile up or it's just inviting trouble.

I've known for a while of at least one point of entry: a small crevice behind a hanging kitchen cabinet to the right of the sink.

I've tried chemical-laden Ortho sprays, but am loathe to use them due to their obvious toxicity. In recent years, I have been somewhat able to control ant infiltration by regularly sprinkling ant pellets around the foundation of my house outside. The stuff wasn't cheap. I ordered it from a website online. However, I had to time this so I was spreading the bait during a dry spell; rain will simply wash the bait away and waste my money. But, if I timed it right, I could usually count on being relatively ant-free (not 100%) inside the house for a period of a few weeks. But, once I start seeing an ant or two here or there, I must re-apply, and this is how it usually goes all summer long.

Here and there I've tried some less toxic alternatives, such as oil of peppermint right next to that kitchen cabinet, but this has not worked

Then, this spring, I completely by accident stumbled upon a 100% effective ant barrier. It's a common household product which I don't care to use for its intended use, but the item is so darn stinky that I thought I would give it a try.

You see, it's a very narrow crevice behind the kitchen cabinet where I've seen the ants coming in most often. For all I know, there's a giant hole behind the cabinet. I really don't know, but I do remember years back when I was replacing my kitchen stove that I found a large hole in the sheet rock behind the stove, about 6 inches in diameter! I didn't have time to close it up while the workman was there, and I wasn't really thinking about insect infiltration at the time, but I was thinking about cold air, so I did at last stuff a fistful of cellulose insulation in there before he positioned the new stove against the wall. So, it makes me wonder what kind of gap might exist behind the kitchen cabinet.

But back to my secret weapon against ants.

Have you guessed what it is?



It's Arm & Hammer Total 2-in-1 dryer cloths. I don't usually buy these things. They're so impregnated with chemicals that I'm reluctant to have them touch my skin, but I got a free-after-rebate offer, so I used it. When I opened up the box and sniffed them, I really couldn't bring myself to use them in the dryer. (And these days, I don't use the dryer much anyway.)

One day it hit me that I should try stuffing one of the dryer sheets in the crevice behind the cabinet. The thing just stunk like chemicals. So I took one and used a butter knife to wedge it up as far as it would go behind the cabinet. It was white, so it blended right in.

Voila.

Carpenter ants, it turns out, have a strong disliking for Arm & Hammer dryer sheets, possibly more than me. Yes, the odor of the dryer sheet is apparent while I'm washing dishes at the sink, but after a week or so, the odor fades. But it still works to keep the ants away.

I have changed the sheet once every 3 or 4 weeks, just to be sure.

I have been so pleasantly surprised by these sheets. I have found very few ants anywhere in the house, and certainly not in the kitchen! I had assumed in past years that there were multiple points of entry. Now I'm thinking that it's entirely possible that ants meandered in via the highway known as Behind-the-Kitchen-Cabinet/Rt. 302 and crawled in various directions so that, when I discovered them elsewhere in the kitchen or even in another room, they fooled me into thinking they'd gained entry from some other location closer to where I found them..

Thank you, Arm & Hammer, for reducing the ant infestation inside my home by roughly 90%. No doubt it's due to the very special ingredients that make our clothes oh-so-toxic and artificial-smelling.

Have you found alternative or off-label uses for common household products?

First, a disclaimer...I didn't come up with that clever phrase, "frugal fast." It's from author Jeff Yeager in his book, The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches.

I haven't read the book yet, but I've added it to my Wish List on Amazon. But the idea of a frugal fast, for a single week out of the year, is intriguing.

The rules are simple: You buy absolutely nothing. The idea is that, at least for that one week, you will have freed yourself from having to do the "Money Step," the endless dance of having to earn more to spend more.

During this one week of no spending, I have a feeling we'd all likely rediscover the simple satisfactions of living cheaply. Meals at home. Trips to the library to rent a movie or read a book. I'm sure the list of ways to not spend money for a week will be much longer and varied.

So who's up for doing this with me starting next Sunday, June 13 through Saturday, June 19?

If you must, wrap up any absolutely needed grocery shopping or fill up your gas tank by the end of this week. Only do what's really necessary. Too much "advance spending" will defeat the purpose of the exercise.

Remember, during this week of no spending, there's no fast food, no impulse snacks on the road and no shopping of any kind. If you work, that means no buying your lunch. Built-in expenses like your mortgage/rent and utility bills are, of course, something that can't be avoided.

At the end of next week, I'd love to hear how you spent your time, if you felt "deprived" and whether you think you saved any money.

Who's in?

Here's a great read for all you frugalites out there:

http://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-05-2010/leap-to-cheap.1.html

...and my favorite quote from the story:

"For us," Newman told me, "a true sign of wealth is free time— freedom from drudgery and unwanted commitments."

That's it for me in a nutshell!

By now, you may have come across some of my earlier posts about what it's like working for the Census Bureau.

To recap, I worked 5 weeks for the Census Bureau covering my hometown, an affluent suburb I know my way around pretty well after having lived here for 15 years. (Observation #1: People with money can be just as nasty as anyone else, but I must say that 98% of the people I met were cooperative, or at least polite.)

The bulk of census work wrapped up in the past week or so, depending on what town you were working in. A lot of people were already let go, but the more productive census workers were offered an opportunity for more work performing "cleanup" in other towns where the census response rate was lower.

Generally, the more affluent suburbs have a pretty high response rate of about 75% or higher while the urban areas in my state have had a much lower response rate of as low as 45%.

I was one of those people who was offered additional work.

So yesterday we had a preliminary meeting of a new crew put together to tackle cleanup work in my region. Prior to yesterday, I was told it was probably this town, or that town, but yesterday I learned it was a certain city about a 40-minute ride for me which has the distinction of having not only the highest unemployment rate but also the highest foreclosure rate in the state.

Although I had asked my old crew leader not to assign me work in this city, it turned out that this was the city that needed working, so it was a matter of, if you want to do more work, this is where it's going to be. So I said ok. I like to have an open mind about things and at least try something once. I don't ever want to be close-minded about anything in life because I believe it closes you off to new experiences and limits your growth as a person.

I thought I would give it a shot and see if it was something I could do. And I made SURE not to tell my mother where I was working because she would get all "concerned."

So at our morning meeting today, we were given our assignment binders. There were about 6 men in my group; I was the only woman (first red flag?), and we were all to tackle different parts of the city.

One of the crew leaders who I'd spoken with about my preference not to work in any bad parts of the city said he didn't believe my assigned area was "bad," although he hadn't driven the roads personally.

There was talk at the meeting of chained pit bulls, entire streets filled with foreclosure after foreclosure (which presents its own unique challenges to a census worker) and gang members on street corners who would demand to know who you were and why you were there. There was a certain amount of joking going on with these comments, but it certainly did nothing to ease my concerns!

Right from the get go, I knew this wasn't going to be easy. I used both a street map and the census-supplied map and neither showed the location of the mall where our meeting was taking place, so i could at least depart knowing where I was going!

I found my neighborhood, but got tripped up because I didn't initially realize that some of my target addresses were on Baldwin Street and I was actually cruising a borderline section of Baldwin AVENUE.

I worked about 5 hours on the streets of the city and was able to complete 10 interviews, which is a respectable rate.

Although nothing "bad" happened to me, I have to say I felt uncomfortable in this environment. It's one thing to drive in and out of the city with a certain destination in mind, but in this case I was all over my assigned neighborhood, getting in and out of my car, wandering into decrepit apartment buildings, etc.

I worried about my own personal safety and the safety of my car parked out on the street when I was in certain apartment buildings trying to do multiple addresses.

Observation #2: I anticipate having trouble completing the remaining 20 or so addressees after my first go-round today. Why? It's really due to the Census' disregard for its own rules.

Example: During training, they told us we were allowed to make UP TO a maximum of 3 in-person visits to an address and/or up to a maximum of 3 phone calls in an effort to make contact with the residents of a given address. After that, they don't want you going back because some people you will never get a hold of, for various reasons and I guess they recognized the futility of trying forever for a small number of addresses.

Each time you visit a home or attempt a phone contact, you record the day and time you did so and the result of your effort, whether that means leaving a note of your visit with a request they call you (they hardly ever do), an actual interview or a "refusal." A refusal is when someone absolutely refuses to provide any information despite all attempts you make to talk them into it.

So these rules worked well enough for about 3 weeks; then one day we were told that the Bureau was no longer accepting refusals, meaning that you were forced to go back repeatedly to get the info one way or the other. (You're instructed to seek out neighbors to use as proxies to provide what info they can.)

So intent was the Bureau in no longer accepting refusals that they instructed us to erase the 3rd entry recorded for an in-person visit! (Everything is written in pencil.)

So they're breaking their own rules and putting census workers in a real bind (and I believe that's why 2 people in my affluent hometown called the cops on me after I left).

Observation #3: Here's how the Census' disregard for its own rules could put its temporary employees in harm's way: Today I knocked on the door of a house. Two young black dudes answered the door, one with a phone in his hand. They quickly told me their sister owned the house but was in the hospital and probably wouldn't be home for a week and while I tried to explain that I didn't need to speak to the owner of the house, that they could speak with me, they had no interest in doing so and the one with the phone kept saying I'm on the phone and was getting annoyed.

Now it would be too complicated to try to explain to these gentlemen that if they don't talk to me then I will have to come back to bother them again becus the Census Bureau doesn't take no for an answer.

Observation #4: But I'll tell you this. There's a big difference between possibly antagonizing a housewife in my hometown vs. pissing off two bros from the 'hood. They had made it clear I was unwelcome, but due to the new Census directive, it could put me in a tenuous position when I return to the house.

I had to enter several apartment buildings with long, dark corridors that really made me nervous. You just don't know what you're getting into.

One thing I learned today: People in my hometown are much more trusting of strangers knocking at their door. When I worked in the city, people really studied my badge very closely. After knocking at another address and no one answering the door, I started walking back to my car. Something told me to turn around, and as I did, i glanced up at the second floor window, which was open. I caught someone watching me but when I looked up, they hid behind a curtain. I yelled up, "Hi, I'm with the Census Bureau," but they wouldn't show themselves. Now how do I make contact when I have to return tomorrow??

I chose to do this work, to at least give working in this city a shot because 1) I've been out of work a long time and need the money and 2) I have to be careful of giving the appearance of "quitting" Census work when more work is still available to me because that could jeopardize my remaining unemployment benefits.

I have re-read my state's unemployment benefits several times over and it does appear that if you quit a job because of a reasonable concern about personal safety, for instance, that could be considered a valid reason for quitting. Or, if your employer changes the rules mid-way through your work. That, too, applies to my case. But all of this is judged by an unemployment administrator and is subject to interpretation, which is what makes me a little nervous. There is no way I can jeopardize my unemployment becus that is what I'm surviving on right now.

But after much thought and feeling on the fence, I called my crew leader and explained the situation. He was very understanding. (I know there were people who turned down the idea of working in this city at the get-go and wouldn't even consider it.) At least I gave it a try. He said he sort of anticipated my phone call. A single woman walking the streets is different from a man doing the same thing. While I believe I appear less threatening to people as a stranger, I'm also a greater target.

So the crew leader offered to try to put together an assignment binder that would still be filled with addresses in this city, but it would be addresses on the outskirts, bordering neighboring towns and more single-family homes, less apartments. In other words, better areas.

Or, he said, you can just stop working, it's up to you. Mindful of my remaining unemployment benefits, I told him if it wasn't an awful lot of trouble to organize a new binder for me, I'd really appreciate it. He said, well, someone's got to do those other addresses, why not you? (Nice guy.)

So, after planning to call it quits and take my chances with the unemployment office, it looks like I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

I do like the money. It's nothing like what I'm used to making, but when you're not making much of anything at all, the pay looks good when you accumulate some hours. Plus, I'm making quite a bit of money on the mileage reimbursement and the nice thing about that is that you're not taxed on the mileage reimbursement. For example, I traveled 51 miles today and at .50 a mile, I'll get $25 back. With my thrifty Honda, I maybe spent $5 on gas, leaving me with a net $20 tax-free profit in one day.

And in case you missed my 5th observation in an earlier post, the people who are MOST POLITE to census workers are those who weren't born in this country. That's because where they come from, government officials can make life very difficult for them and it pays to be nice to the lowly census worker. Many Americans, on the other hand, take democracy for granted: they don't bother to vote, and they close the door in your face, knowing nothing's going to happen to them.

The weather has been awful yesterday and today. In the 80s, but with high, high humidity.

I haven't wanted to go anywhere, so i have 3 ceiling fans and 2 box fans going full tilt.

I have managed to vacuum the downstairs, change the hummingbird water, clean the bath tub and make iced tea. I also calculated that my gross income year to date is about $15,000.

That includes $8900 from unemployment (gross), $3254 from 5 weeks of work with the census bureau (gross) and $1490 from my freelance writing. It also includes $200 from doing online surveys, market research focus groups ($240), medical research studies ($249) and some other odds and ends.

(I made roughly similar amounts of money from the online surveys, the market research focus groups and the medical studies, yet I must say the online surveys took the most time. I probably spend 30 minutes to an hour most days on them, while the money earned from the market and medical studies were earned much more quickly, in a day or two. Just a reminder to self regarding what my priorities should be.)

I want to continue tracking my income as the year goes on, since I want to do a Roth IRA conversion later in the year and I want to make sure that 1) my income remains in the 15% tax bracket, thus making it worthwhile to do a conversion while I'm unemployed since I'm usually in the 25% bracket, and 2) that the amount I convert itself doesn't push me into the 25% tax bracket. Doing it this year on such a low income means I'll pay 15% taxes instead of 25%.

Round 2 with the Census Bureau is imminent. In fact, I was told there'd be a prelim meeting of the new crew this weekend, but I haven't heard anything further.

I also applied for a p/t contract job (advertised only in my local weekly paper) working for my town's economic development commission doing some interviews and reports of how we can make the town more appealing to business. It sounds interesting. Preferential treatment given to residents of my town. Instant advantage.

I also exchanged a few more emails with a woman from the online rug website I mentioned before. It was sort of painstaking to get some basic info from her on what the job entailed, but now she has and i named my price, a small job that ideally would lead to more and bigger jobs. She hasn't gotten back to me yet on accepting my proposal.

Finally, in my never-ending quest to make money, I proposed to my older neighbor/friend that I scrape, sand, prime and paint her small front porch. She's been wanting to get it done for years. I told her to take 20% off what she's pay a professional painter and let me do it. It's the kind of thing I do around here at my house all the time. It'd be a lot of work but I would earn money and she lives a half mile away from me. I'd delay starting that until the Census "cleanup" work is done, probably a few weeks or a month from now.

I wrapped up my census work on Memorial Day weekend and was told I could expect a phone call in early July about doing some final, additional "cleanup" work in some other town.

I liked the paychecks, of course, but I was also looking forward to a break from the all-consuming work (I worked 6 or 7 days a week) and a chance to take care of things around here, like my veggie garden. Of course, the status of all things Census-related changes hourly.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from crew leader telling me my return to census work would be much more imminent than early July, and would likely be in D., a small nearby city with a large immigrant population.

Fine, I said. I'm ready, willing and able.

Then I got a call last evening from another crew leader telling me no, I'd be going to N., a valley town about 40 minutes from here.

They're returning my census bag and badge this morning at 8:30 am.

Either way, I expect a tougher time getting surveys done due to greater difficulty finding addresses in an unfamiliar town, many more apartments and more non-English speaking residents. Plus the humid and hot weather with t-storms will be more of a factor than it was in May.

In other job search news, my neighbor told me his company is expanding and hiring. He designs toys for a toy company where normal work hours make for 10 hour days (8 to 6) but they pay extremely well. They don't have any openings for writers, per se, but he said they don't hire for specific positions, instead focusing on the person, testing them all day and then if they like you they create a job for you.

It's a long shot, especially as I have zero retail experience, copywriting or otherwise, but there's nothing to lose. We agreed I'd leave my resume in his mailbox so he can grab it on his way in to work. He can at least hand-deliver it to the owner.

A few weeks ago a website where I have purchased 3 or 4 of my bamboo rugs was having a contest, giving away a $100 gift card to whoever had the best ideas for improving their website. Being a writer, I of course zeroed in on the website copy and in fact found a number of places with incorrect grammar, less than desirable language and other room for improvement.

I didn't win the contest, but I was quite surprised when I got an email from someone there yesterday asking me what my rates are and do I have writing samples they could see.

Wow! What a cool way to get a possible writing assignment! I sent writing samples, though again, I've done little to none retail copywriting. My work has all been in financial services, real estate or insurance.

Yesterday for hoo-has my friend and i drove over to a Big Lots store and I bought 3 jars of Prego for $1.90 each and some Pepperidge Farm bread at $1.50. It had an expiration date of that same day, but I immediately froze all the bread when I got home. We ate lunch at a deli type store where I had an overpriced quesadilla and warm diet Coke.

After a 6-month wait, I recently got my scanner from Nielsen Research and am now a National Consumer Panel member, which means I need to scan everything I buy (not just groceries, anything with a bar code) and transmit to Nielsen weekly. In return, after I do this for about 10 years, I will have earned enough points to get a high def TV which I have my eye on.

I sometimes get lazy and leave my garage door open over night and I see that last night and the night before, something knocked over a galvanized garbage can to get at the sunflower seed in there. I can't imagine anything but a raccoon doing that, except that in all my 15 years here, I've never seen a raccoon. (Only skunks, possums, turkeys, woodchucks, rabbits, foxes, coyotes and deer).

Here's what I got:

1. a Special K granola bar
2. A Pantene shampoo and conditioner set, sample sized
3. A check for $117 (!), representing the final court settlement of a local oil company that ripped off hundreds 4 or 5 years ago. I think this 2nd and final payment now makes me whole. I'll set it aside for this winter's heating oil.
4. A rebate check for $2.99.
5. An Earthbound Farm reusable grocery bag.

Pretty good haul, eh?

Last night for dinner I had the most delicious salad.



A generous helping of lettuce from my garden (how cool), cherry tomatoes, toasted sunflower seeds and walnuts, a sliced hard-boiled egg and strips of teriyaki chicken. Yum.

Thunderstorms just passed through here. I hope it cools down the humidity. I did some small garden chores this a.m., pruning a tall rhododendron and trimming some shrubs, but I was soon drenched in sweat. I also vacuumed the upstairs.

I was kind of hoping that all the extra money I was earning from the Census Bureau could be socked away for, I don't know, winter heating oil expenses or something.

But because of a number of extra expenses this month, some unavoidable and one, umm, due to my own fiscal weakness, I've finished up May in the hole to the tune of $138.

I netted $1882 from 3 Census Bureau paychecks; that's about $454 more than what I'd get from 3 weeks of unemployment. In addition, I still got $188 from partial unemployment and $450 from freelance writing, which for me is a lot in a single month (as an out of work person). Plus I made $52 from online surveys. So my total net for May was $2,590 which is not bad at all, except for the following atypical expenses:

1. Cost of a plumber to declog a kitchen sink (my friends tried first) and fix a leaky toilet: $296 (THe toilet had been out of commission for well over a year.)

2. A set of 2 bamboo folding chairs: $117 (UNNECESSARY EXPENSE but i like them)

3. Clothing: I had an interview recently, plus the Census Bureau asks you to dress "business casual." Since gaining about 15 to 20 pounds since my layoff, none of my pants fit and i ended up spending $199 on pants, capris and a few tops. I really needed them; seems all i have in the way of summer clothing is tight-fitting t-shirts. but I could have tried harder to buy only discounted items.

4. The battery on my lawnmower died this spring, its 4th cutting season, and i picked up a new one yesterday to the tune of $136. This was definitely not on my planned list of expenses, but when the grass is growing, you can't delay mowing for long.

5. I spent $118 on gas this month, but that's due to the Census work I've been doing and much of it is reimbursable about 4x what I actually spent.

I'm wrapping up the Census work with just 2 surveys to finish. So I can expect 3 more paychecks from them, 2 of them for full-time work and this past week for about 15 hours worth. Doing the census work will also help me extend my unemployment benefits which, at this rate, it looks like I may well need to the bitter end.

Living absolutely minimally with absolutely no unnecessary expenses is possible for a month or even a few, but having done it now for 8 months, you sometimes feel you must "splurge" on entertainment or a meal out or SOMETHING or you'll go crazy. It's hard to keep it up without cheating a little. So today a friend and I will be visiting a garden. I'm using a coupon so we'll each pay just $3.50, but she'll likely be wanting to eat out, and I hope to avoid caving in to that, much as I'd like to. The Census work lulled me into a false sense of, "I'm earning money and can afford to spend a little more than I normally do here and there." I'm not sure I absolutely needed to spend $200 on clothing; I probably could have gotten by spending $75. The chairs, of course, unnecessary. I really need to try harder to stifle those spending impulses when they come, becus I often give in to them. A little here, a little there and it really does add up.

So after I finish up these last 2 remaining surveys, I should have a lull of no Census work for the month of June, and then hopefully will get a call early July for some "cleanup" work in other towns. That work will undoubtedly be harder becus finding addresses somewhere other than my hometown will be more difficult, but it will also translate into more money due to the mileage. I have no idea how much extra work there will be, or what towns they may send me to.

this a.m. i had a job interview, a financial writer position in a town a good 75 minutes away withOUT traffic.

I figured I'd check it out. The plan was to "wow" them with me, seduce them into making an offer and then ask for partial telecommuting benefits.

I think the person interviewing me, who would be a colleague, liked me well enough and she said my book (portfolio) was "impressive." But i was surprised the interview only lasted a half hour, hardly enough time to show her all my writing samples and she never even really went into what the job was like.

I suspect she's doing the initial screening interviews and those who get called back will meet with the agency owner.

I've pretty much decided I can't deal with that kind of commute, and she made some comments early on that indicated telecommuting would be unlikely. However, she did ask me what my freelance hourly rate was and i told her. If i pass on the perm job, perhaps there's a chance i could get some freelance work out of it. I only regret i told her my rate ($60/hr) for my real estate clients, who can't afford anything higher. Financial services clients would easily pay someone $75 an hour. Oh well. Too late now.

My census work is winding down in a hurry. I only have 4 surveys left, and these are all "problem" cases where I've been unable to make contact with the resident. My crew leader is going to recommend me for some further "clean-up" work in early July, which would mean going into other towns to wrap up loose ends there. She's only recommending the top people, and I'm #1 in terms of productivity!

So aside from these 4 or so problem surveys, which i'd love to wrap up early this weekend, I'll have a nice month-long break in June to just get back to my own schedule.

I've been missing working in my veggie garden. Delicate and adorable cucumber, bean and squash seedlings have emerged from the hills I planted. It's always a miracle to me when seeds sprout. I mulched the potatoes again today and did some weeding. I also picked a cup's worth of basil leaves and made a yummy pesto sauce over pasta with the basil, walnuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil and garlic cloves in the blender. I get addicted to this stuff.

I also had a gigantic salad for 2 with lettuce from my garden with cherry tomatoes (why is all they sell now grape tomatoes??) and french dressing, which happens to be my favorite.

I'm really in need of FUN, so friend and i agreed to do a few things this weekend that may include trip to a local garden (I'll take pix fur sure) and trip to a Big Lots type store i don't usually go to and then hit the diner nearby for lunch.

Sorry, folks, this will be a bit of a downer.

I don't think i want to go into details, but today was my first really bad day doing the census work, due to hitting two consecutive homes, the first ones i visited today, where the people were really, umm, bitchy. Then i hit a 3rd house just as bad, later in the day. I actually parked by the side of the road and cried. This after 4 weeks working full-time and for the most part enjoying the work.

I'd like to quit, but realize i really can't because it could affect the unemployment benefits I'm still getting. So i'll have to tough it out for another 2 weeks or so, which is when the work is expected to wrap up.

I called my crew leader to talk about it and spent the rest of the day here at home, not doing much but just feeling upset. I'm not used to people yelling the F word in my face. It's really shocking that people feel free to verbally abuse a stranger and then call the cops to complain about me.

I talked to the cop on the phone and it was no big deal. She just reminded me that when people start getting nasty, just leave immediately. Problem is, the CB wants us to try to talk people into doing an interview if they resist. It's a very fine line between recognizing someone who's just grumbling, but who will do the survey with you if you're patient and persuasive, and someone who goes from grumbling to furious in a matter of minutes and recognizing the futlity of trying to talk to them.

But there are many more nice people than not.

After the nasty people, I soldiered on and the next residence i went to, i was still feeling very shaky and the guy i was talking to picked up on it. I mentioned I'd had some particularly difficult homes to visit. He seemed curious about it and while i probably shouldn't have, i told him all about it. I needed to vent. He was very kind.

I've had others invite me into their home and offer me water to take along with me when the weather was hot. One man toldme he intentionally didn't mail in his survey becus his brother, who works for the Census Bureau, told him that the more people who don't mail in the survey, the more unemployed Americans will be put to work. I was able to tell him that I'm one of those people, and i was very grateful for the work.

I've had many interesting conversations and connected with a lot of people. I find that people often want to talk about whatever's on their mind and I enjoy the dialogue. But it just takes a single nasty person to ruin my day and it's hard for me to bounce back quickly.

I've been working 7 days a week, not full days, but 7 days nonetheless becus i need the money. Now i'm feeling gun shy about approaching a new house becus i have no idea if loose dogs are going to rush me (I always drive into the driveway for that reason; if there are loose dogs, the car offers protection) or, more importantly, are the people going to be nice or not.

I'm taking tomorrow off,and hope to regain some of my confidence early in the week.But I guess the novelty of doing this has worn off now.

So tomorrow i'm going to see Alice in Wonderland at the $2 movie theater with a friend. Maybe will mow the lawn.

...it was so small, after taxes, if you compare it to what i used to make in my field, but compared to what I'd otherwise be earning now, as a long-term unemployed person? I netted $640 (gross: $860).

I'm enjoying the work. I've run into a few bitchy women (it's always the women, I'm afraid). I actually think some are jealous I'm talking to their husband. I was talking to one dad in the driveway while the teenage son was on the cell phone with mom. Son told me his mother said to move my car out of the driveway becus she was coming home. Geez.

I've had 2 compliments on my diamond peace sign necklace, and they were both from men who were from my generation. It's unusual to get compliments from men on jewelry, usually it's women who notice it, so I'll consider that a good sign that i picked a nice piece.

My assistant crew leader told me that he and the crew leader both agreed that i was, far and away, the most productive "enumerator" (Census worker) they had in my group of 15 or so. I think our crew leader made a mistake when she told us in training that the census bureau expects us to complete one survey per hour of work. Of course, that includes time spent finding an address, tracking down people who may not be home and/or looking for a proxy/neighbor who can give you basic info about the housing unit.

Still, i think that gave a number of people the false idea that they could generally goof off and get a day's worth of pay as long as they completed just 8 surveys.

I've been averaging about 16 a day, sometimes more. So they want to pile on the work and i said sure, bring it on. Otherwise, my crew leader's boss had threatened to "bring people in," meaning, enumerators from other towns, to finish the job, which i guess would be an embarrassment to her. Some people are going to school, or doing this on the side after another job, so that accounts for part of it. There's one guy i talked to who has a tree cutting service, and he only does his census work, which pays less than tree-cutting, on rainy days when he can't cut down trees.

But i made sure to clear my schedule so i could focus wholly on the census work, and my personal goal, as mentioned before, is to do as close to 40 hours a week worth of work as possible, becus once it's done, that's it. No more work (at least for another 10 years).

I'm scheduling my 1 day off for whenever it rains, so this week, that'll be Tuesday.

This past week my assistant crew leader needed to "monitor" an enumerator in action, so he went out with me, which i was dreading. They make a big point of your reading the questions EXACTLY as they're written on the survey and you're supposed to ask, for example, whether the person is male or female, even when you're staring them right in the face. Most people get impatient or irritated at that point since the answer is obvious and you're wasting their time. But anyway, he only needed to see me do one interview, and after that, he said I aced it and he took off.

In between census work, i manage to keep the lawn mowed and i've also continued planting squash seedlings in the garden. Yesterday i planted 5 very small tomato plants but i hope they mature quickly.

I haven’t spent much time around here lately because I recently started working with the Census Bureau.

Yes, they finally called me. I was thrilled. I completed 4 days of training in an unheated church hall, sitting on a cold, metal chair with about 20 other trainees each day, and as a result started feeling sick following my last day of training. Have been battling a cold ever since.

The timing couldn’t be worse because they’ve told us that when the work, expected to last about 6 weeks, begins petering out, it will be the least productive enumerators who get let go first.

No one’s really sure how long the work will last, but I do know that the more affluent towns like mine had higher response rates to the mailed survey, so the need for in-person visits is less. The cities had lower response rates. They always have you work in your own home town, which is great because you tend to know the area better and have an easier time finding addresses.

When you get your addresses, you also get census maps for that area showing the GPS locations of the addresses, which comes in handy.

I’m determined to maximize my earnings (up to 40 hours a week max, no overtime), so I’ve been working pretty much 7 days a week. Not full days, mind you, but 7 days nonetheless.

I’ve been tinkering with my work hours to find the most productive time and it’s clear that while you can visit homes and leave your notices to have them call you from 9 to 5 on weekdays, the vast majority of people don’t bother calling you back, so you have to return to the address anyway.

So I've found the best time for me is from about 3 p.m. til dark on weekdays, and then i put in another hour finishing up the paperwork at home. All day on Saturday and Sunday is prime time, with the best chance of finding people at home.

You’re allowed to make up to 3 in-person visits and up to 3 attempts to reach them by phone. (You’re only provided with the street address, no phone or name, so it’s up to you to do a reverse address phone lookup online. I’ve found the online listings to be less than accurate if people have recently moved.)

If you can’t make contact with the people, you can try knocking on a neighbor’s door and, if they’re willing, have them serve as your proxy for the other address. That method worked very well for me in an area of my town that has a lot of summer cottages on the water. I found a single year-round resident who was willing to walk up and down her street with me and serve as proxy for a half dozen summer homes. It saved me the trouble of going through the motions of repeat visits to clearly vacant homes. (You can’t guess or assume it’s vacant, you have to have the resident or a knowledgeable neighbor, realtor or landlord confirm that.)

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that 98% of people are cooperative and willing to do the survey. Some you can clearly see are resistant, but even then, most answer most of the questions, even with me asking fairly personal questions like, do you own the house with a mortgage? What’s your age and date of birth?

I ran into one rude woman yesterday who came out of her house as I was getting out of my car to tell me, “Get out of my driveway, my husband’s coming home soon.” As I began to do so, she told me I didn’t have to, she was just in a “bad mood.” She continued to grumble about the government’s inefficiency becus she had mailed in her survey too late for it to be counted and now had to do the survey with me a second time. Hey lady, it takes all of 5 minutes and after this, you won’t see a census worker for another 10 years!

I considered getting some Mace from the drugstore in case of aggressive dogs, but I haven’t had any problems yet. If I see a loose, barking dog in a yard, I don’t get out of the car. In fact, I was at one address yesterday and waited in the car a good 10 minutes to see if the continuously barking dog would get the occupants to come outside. It didn’t. I even lightly beeped the horn to try to get their attention, but they were obviously occupied. I finally gave up and left.

I’ve been enjoying the work and wished it would last longer. I like it becus you can make your own hours, adjusting when necessary, and you work on your own, which suits my temperament. And I really like exploring my own hometown, meeting residents and seeing homes and neighborhoods I never knew about.

While my town has a population of just 28,000, it’s one of the largest towns in terms of square mileage in the county. I’ve gone to some really out of the way locations that remind me of Appalachia because of their remoteness and mosquitoes. These are people who like to be left alone!

I just had an impromptu get-together at a local coffee shop with my friend R., who was on his way back from somewhere else and was swinging through my town.

He had recently told me that his PSA levels have become elevated again, this after having a Cyberknife therapy a year ago that's supposed to be 98% effective.

Let me back up a bit. R. is someone I've known for about 20 years now. I met him when i was in my late 20s at a singles event. He was the first man I fell deeply in love with. Outgoing, gregarious, great sense of humor, very smart. We eventually moved in together, but there was a lot of friction, much of it having to do with his insistence on still seeing female "friends" while we were living together. No, he didn't want to double-date, no, he didn't want to introduce me to them or have me come along. You can see why I hated the idea. We had many battles about it, and he would tell me i was just insecure and jealous. This was the man I loved, the first man i could see myself spending my life with.

He wasn't being physically unfaithful, but he had such a way with women, I think it was hard for him to give that up. He could get any woman to share her innermost thoughts and feelings with him in record time.

Eventually, we broke up. This was a major cause of the breakup, but it was also becus he was always (being 12 years older than me) very controlling and very argumentative.

Anyway. We remained friends for all these years and kept in touch. Despite his having caused me so much pain, I never revealed in later years just how much pain he caused me.

Fast forward about a decade or so. Those of you old-timers around this forum may recall my stories of how the woman he ended up marrying late in life left him. (She, too, found him very controlling and domineering.) R. became deeply depressed and went on anti-depressants. He pursued her. Shortly after their divorce was finalized, she had second thoughts. Maybe six months after that, they remarried. Unbelievably, a year or two later, she left him a second time. You can imagine the heartache.

In the past year, she's had some serious medical issues, was in the hospital for many months and even now still has a tube and bag attached to her for fecal and urine output. It started with an obstructed bowel. She's had several surgeries, and may have to have another one. She qualified for disability and gave up a good paying career as a nurse.

Last year, my friend R. had elevated PSA levels, which point to prostate cancer. They kept doing biopsies for many months until they finally found cancer. After much research, he opted for a somewhat new prostate cancer treatment called Cyberknife. It avoids the need for conventional surgery which has a high risk of either incontinence of impotence, or both. R. told me it was 98% effective.

That was last year.

More recently, his PSA levels, having dropped to normal levels following the Cyberknife and high radiation doses, have risen again to where they were when he first tested positive for cancer. He's waiting for the latest biopsy results from last week but is prepared now for another treatment called cyro-something, which involves long needles but again avoids incontinence/impotence risks. He can't have any more radiation cus he's already had the maximum limit. He says he doesn't want to wear diapers for the rest of his life, and he recently bought a very sporty muscle car, cherry red, a Camaro which I saw for the first time today.

Back when he opted for the Cyberknife surgery, his insurance company, a well-known one, declined to pay for the treatment becus they considered it experimental. He sued them and they eventually settled with him out of court. In return for paying for the procedure, they made him sign an agreement saying that if the prostate cancer returned and he needed subsequent treatment for it, they would not pay for it.

Talk about a Orwellian choice. Fortunately, R. has dodged that particular insurance coverage bullet because his wife, as a former nurse at a good hospital here, had an excellent policy which pays 100% of everything, regardless of insurance policy. So he's covered.

Another good thing is that through all the medical crises both he and his wife have experienced in the past two years, she has finally come around to wanting him in her life. She bought her own condo a long time ago and they live apart, but on paper they are married, and he had insisted a ways back when, when she depended on him for taking her to the doctor, and to surgery and for just plain being there for her when she needed it, that she keep him on her insurance plan, mainly for all the trauma she put him through when she ditched him...twice. She agreed. (He's 62 now, I think, and dropped out of f/t corporate career life and is now working 3 p/t jobs. So he needed insurance to get him thru age 65, when Medicare would pick him up.

So now, perhaps facing the reality of spending the rest of her life with colostomy bags and scarred all over, she realizes R. has proven himself worthy of her love. She's also come face to face with his mortality. So she's proposed to him that they remain in each others lives, to what capacity, I'm not sure, but that they would continue to live apart, even while she would not date anyone and she hopes that he wouldn't either.

R. seemed undecided about all that. His parents, he explained, remained together in a traditional marriage for all of their lives.

Anyway, I'm feeling rather depressed about my friend's health. He's been through a lot in his personal relationship, and now it could be a worst case scenario with his own serious medical issue. So far, a CAT scan and MRI have not shown any spread of the cancer beyond the prostate.

I don't have a lot of people in my life, but R., for all his faults, was and has been an important person to me. I would be devastated to lose him.

My apple tree in bloom.

It's a rainy, dreary day and I'm feeling rather relieved about that. It gives my body a chance to recover from all the yard work I've been doing, plus I know this is the day I'd better write my freelance assignment since i start training with the Census Bureau on Tuesday. Plus, with the rain, I get a break from my twice daily watering schedule for the grass seed I sowed. It's finally coming up in one section, not in the other, which gets less sun.

Yesterday I accomplished a lot. In the morning, I transplanted a corkscrew willow that had languished for several years in a spot that got plenty of moisture but not enough sun, apparently, and moved it, well, just about 25 feet further inward toward the center of the front yard. Basically, I'm running out of space to plant things, and I know this corkscrew willow can reach 30 feet in height, so I have to be careful not to put it in a spot where it shades out other things I've planted, including my vegetable garden and 5 different viburnums.

Anyway, I dug the new hole, poured some well-aged horse manure it it, then moved and re-erected the deer fencing around it and watered it.


Bleeding heart

Onto the veggie garden. I finished shaking out all the clods of grass, hauling them in a wheelbarrow to the brushy perimeter of the yard and heaving them in a spot where no one will see them.

Then I brought out from the garage 4 more 7-foot-high metal posts and the last of the fencing I'd bought last spring, to expand my veggie garden by about 50%. Becus other shrubs I planted are sort of in the way, I was forced to expand in one direction, and it now makes my garden an L-shaped affair, not a typical square or rectangle.

I put the fence up without too much trouble. (I had laid it out flat for weeks in my garage so the thing wouldn't instantly spring back to a rolled position if I let it go. Having a helper would have made that unnecessary, but I managed.)

I dug up 1 row in the new section of the garden and planted cut up organic red potatoes I had stored in the basement. Hadn't planned on using them as seed potato but they were rapidly sprouting, so I thought what the heck. However, I wanted more potatoes, so I got in the car and headed for Wal-Mart where I remembered seeing small bags of russet seed potatoes the previous week. (I am still learning, and impressed by, the competitive Wal-Mart prices on all sorts of things.)

Brought my russets back home and after reading the package directions, realized i should wait a day or two before planting to allow the potato sections i cut up (1 or 2 eyes per section) to callus over. Not sure what that does, and I'd forgotten to do that with the red potatoes I'd already planted, but oh well, guess we'll see.

I shoveled up a wheelbarrow full of mulch (left over from a pine tree i had taken down, mulched and left in a huge pile of my yard, near the driveway) and shoveled it out parallel to the potatoes I'd planted. The mulched section will be walkway; I wanted to mark it clearly so i don't accidentally step on where I planted. I'll have another walkway in this section with a 2nd row of potatoes against the fence on the other side and a row of tomato plants (4 to 5) going down the middle. So there'll be two walkways in between. I hope to plant the rest of the potatoes on Monday, weather permitting, and the string beans, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, etc. will go in 1st weekend in May. They are either seeds or little seedlings i have started.

I will buy the tomato plants, and maybe the bell peppers, and put them in last.


Crabapple in bloom.


Twisted old crabapple.


Lungwort in bloom

My basil seedlings were looking so poorly i bought 2 basil plants yesterday for $2 each and potted them up already. I also potted up 2 elephant ear tubers (another Wal-Mart find, $3 each) in large pots and will be excited to see what they look like. Right now, they look very much like small coconuts!

Wild turkeys have been wandering through my property, sometimes 1, sometimes 2. I can often hear them gobbling in the woods.

I've really been enjoying the spring weather these last few weeks, working in the yard at least a little bit on every decent day.

There's so much to do...groan...but at least, if i can't be working now at a paying job, I can work to make my property attractive. I literally work each day I can to the point of exhaustion, and then end up feeling incredibly sore and stiff for the next 2 days. I keep waiting for the point when my body will adjust to the new regimen; my sister, who works as a gardener on a private estate and who is 2 years older than me, said I'm just not used to it. I had thought for a long time that it was just another sign I was getting older, but I'm hoping she's right.

In brief, I'm clearing out some brushy, overgrown areas, rescuing some cherry tree seedlings and possible June berry seedlings from being choked completely by vines. I'm expanding my vegetable garden by roughly 50%. This is so back-breaking, turning over the sod, letting the sun dry the clumps and then shaking each clod out so as not to lose valuable topsoil. (I have the best soil, I must say.) Then i have to trudge with my heavy wheelbarrow full of grass clumps and unload them (I prefer the flinging method) in another brushy area of yard I don't intend to ever "rehabilitate."

I'm also watering the grass seed i planted elsewhere twice daily...a pain, and i still see nothing sprouting after one full week. I'll be ticked off if birds or the occasional wandering turkey has eaten the seed.

Aside from that, I DID have a job interview this morning with a recruiter. It was an editor job for a global hedge fund, a bit of an unusual company. ("Intense," was how she phrased it.) Although I'm not sure if I'd want to work there, given the culture, I believe in keeping my options open for as long as possible so that i end up making as informed a decision as possible. She said she'd send my resume onto the company; i'm guessing, based on other things she told me about the backgrounds of 3 others who were interviewed, that i have no more than a 50/50 chance at being called in for an interview. However, all that being said, the pay would be exceptionally good, probably in the $90K range.

I got a check today for $217 for my participation in a 3-part medical study at Yale. I also wrote the monthly blog post for one of my clients, and since he wants to use that for May, not April, I have another blog post to write for April.

I'll need to do that this weekend as I start my 4 days of training with the Census Bureau Tuesday, and after that, i will be working more or less full time for about 8 weeks, more or less. Yes, they finally called me!

So for that reason, i REALLY want to finish readying the expanded vegetable garden and plant my potatoes this weekend. So I'll cool it on the medical and market research studies as a way to earn cash and focus, for a while, on the Census Bureau work.

I'm still attending the occasional physician lecture/free dinner and enjoy them greatly, I must say! That is my new form of cheap entertainment since i'm really not eating out much these days, even at fast food places. As a result of all this, my personal balance sheet looks pretty decent after over 6 months of unemployment. I haven't touched any savings.

Of course, I'm really anxious to start working again and hope that day comes soon. I want to get back on track with my retirement savings and early mortgage payoff. Those two things, to be totally honest, are what bother me the most, by far, about unemployment.

So yesterday was my final trip (for the time being) up to Yale for assorted medical research studies.

I was supposed to hit two of them. Since they were drawing blood at the first one, I had to be there at 8 am. We had to walk over to Yale-New Haven Hospital for the blood draw, but it was a gorgeous day. As per usual, the nurse had a little trouble drawing blood, so she ended up piercing me in the lower arm and it was still flowing very slowly (dehydrated) so she was "milking" my hand all the while. Afterwards, they fed me a full breakfast of pancakes, bacon, cereal, juice and coffee, something they don't do for everyone, but i guess she felt bad for me becus of the trouble with the blood draw. Cool!

I should get a check for $217 in the mail in a few weeks.

So on to my 2nd study. I had specifically asked the young woman where to park, and she mentioned the parking lot directly in front of the building as well as parking garages. Metered street parking I figured wouldn't work well since the study was probably going to be more than 2 hours and i don't think the meters go for more than that. (Honestly, I'm not really sure now, but you'd think the people doing these studies would be able to give accurate, specific info on parking in the city since it can be an issue. It's all students running these studies and since most of them don't need a car to get around, they don't seem to really know themselves.)

I had a little trouble finding the location, and with the one-way streets, had to circle around the city block 3 times before i found it. (This was the first MapQuest screw-up i had.) I found the very small parking lot in front of the building, but contrary to what she'd told me, the sign said permit parking only, all others will be towed. Then i found an adjacent parking lot for the same building, but this one had a gate down. I pulled in to push the button for a parking ticket and the sign said Out of Order. The gate was still down, so i had no choice but to back out onto the very busy road. Not good. I was so stressed after that, and generally stressed after the issues with my blood draw from the first study, that I decided to say the heck with it and just headed home, feeling drained. I called to tell her i wouldn't be there. I was giving up another $40, but oh well, there will be other studies.

Last night a friend and i went to an excellent physician lecture on Woman & Heart Disease. It was a really good talk and the doctor was quite approachable. We chatted a bit as he sat at my table. The yummy free dinner provided by Masonicares included grilled chicken, sauteed zucchini and yellow squash and a cold tortellini salad, plus fruit punch and cookies for dessert.

The last few days were so nice, weather-wise, that I was able to do a lot of yard work. I discovered there are maybe a half dozen "volunteer" cherry tree seedlings growing in a brushy, overgrown area on the north side of my house, nearby the 3 dwarf cherry trees I purchased and planted a number of years ago. I don't bother trying to eat the cherries, they're mostly pit, but the birds, especially the cat birds, relish them, and they planted new seedlings for me.

I would never have noticed them growing in this overgrown area except that they're now in bloom. The biggest seedling is about 6 feet high, but was becoming engulfed in wild grapevine and bittersweet, so I spent a lot of time de-tangling those vines from it, and then pulling out the vines themselves so they wouldn't simply grow back. There's still more to do.

There's also a large barberry, so in preparation for digging that thing out, I clipped back all the branches.

I then had enough plastic fencing and wood stakes to fence in two of the seedlings. I was surprised the deer hadn't already discovered them there, but now that I've cleared much of the overgrown stuff out, they stand out like beacons, i imagine, to hungry deer. I'm happy that at least 3 of the seedlings happened to have sprouted up in locations where I can just leave them to grow, not too close to other plants or in a bad spot, plus they'll all enjoy plenty of springtime water since a drainage outlet pipe is in the vicinity. They'll also help shield the view of my neighbor's house over time.

Got an assignment from a freelance client for the April corporate blog post, so i should try to do that this weekend.

I rolled out my remaining 6-foot-high fencing to see how much I could expand my veggie garden by, and it looks like I have enough to add another 30 square feet. I will, however, have to dig up a big burning bush that's in the wrong place, and I'll need to buy 4 more 7 foot high metal stakes to secure the fencing in the expanded section. This needs to be my next outdoor project becus planting time approaches.

On Sunday, we're going to an annual cactus and succulent show. The first 50 people there get a free plant, so we'll try to be early! I really like cacti and "succulents," ie jade plants and other fleshy-leaves arid-climate loving plants, and admission is free.

On Tuesday i have a borough meeting and hope the contingency i support will succeed in convincing borough leaders they don't need $250,000 of our borough tax dollars in reserve and to cut in half the coming year's tax bill. (This is in addition to town property taxes.) In other words, they have a whole lot of our tax dollars just sitting in a bank account "in case they need it." Don't tax me for no reason!! Grr.

On Wednesday i have another physician lecture and free dinner at an Ethan Allen Inn. I'm really enjoying these.

My builder Ralph made a surprise appearance yesterday after not showing up over the weekend. I was thrilled. We chatted as he worked to relocate my sump pump outlet pipe for better drainage and to cement off two old window wells where the old window frames had rotted.

In the meantime, I worked to pull out brambles and thorny stuff that was overtaking a large, fenced in garden I have. Last year I didn't touch the space and so these brambles really had a chance to spread. There are quite a few nice plants in there, including 3 dwarf cherry trees, 5 blueberry bushes, wild oats and a bunch of perennials like Jacob's Ladder, hosta, bleeding heart, gooseberry, a Peking cotoneaster, lady's mantle, etc.

He's not quite done so let's hope he returns today.

Had a nice Easter lunch with family and hung out afterwards to show my mom how to create her own blog.

Last week I helped my my mother set up a new exhibit at a local library. It was quite a lot of work as she had about 25 pieces, many of them large, to hang. My mom turned 76 this year and still she insists on booking large solo shows like this that are physically demanding to install and disassemble. It's unusual that I am available to help her; sometimes she relies on others, but it's always an iffy thing.

On the way to doing that, my neighbor's punk son tried to run me off the road in retaliation for my complaining last spring to the town that they were operating a commercial lawn-mowing business from their home, which isn't permitted by zoning laws. I don't think he actually intended to hit me but was trying to intimidate me, so when he saw i had just finished pulling out of my driveway and was headed up my road as he was coming down, he approached in his behemoth pick-up and deliberately crossed over the yellow line a good 3 feet, so he was halfway into my lane, forcing me to pull to the right and brake.

I considered calling the cops but couldn't decide if that move would end up escalating the tensions or nipping them in the bud. And, I figured, maybe he should be allowed to "vent" once. I would be pissed in his shoes, too, but your basic game plan shouldn't rest on doing something illegal, and I also can't stand the noise.

So I did nothing, and headed on to help my mom. If he does something like that again, i most certainly will call the cops becus i don't want him to get the idea he can act with impunity. As it is, whenever he goes by my driveway, he always looks to see if i'm outside in the yard, and if i am, he races the engine becus he thinks that annoys me.

I'm more concerned that he might try some anonymous vandalism, like bashing my mailbox or even destroying my vegetable garden, which is in clear view in the front yard.

I'm curious if he'll continue to try to circumvent zoning laws like he did all last summer, even trying to hide their mowers by parking them at another neighbor's house who lives behind me in the woods. At the time, they didn't know it was me who complained. But they strung along the zoning enforcement officer from one month to the next, claiming they "needed more time" to make other accommodations.

Those big mowers have been sitting parked in their backyard all winter. The place generally looks like a dump, but my main concern is i don't want to deal with the noise. So far, nothing's happened with that since mowing season hasn't really started, but it should in another week or two.

If they start up again like last year, I won't hesitate to call the town. I sure hope he doesn't think that running me off the road will soften my feelings about the matter.

I've got a dentist appointment this afternoon. This is one of the few medical visits I'll do while unemployed. I called to see what the price would be for just the cleaning. $91. Very steep.

Later this week I finish up with 2 of my final medical research studies, both on the same day.

I've applied for a few jobs recently that I think I'm very well qualified for, but so far, no call-backs. Still no call from the Census Bureau.

I painted the sun room floor last Thursday, just one coat of very sticky, thick paint. The instructions on the can said it could handle "light traffic" after 2 or 3 days, but to wait a full week for "heavy traffic." I walked on it twice after 3-4 days and the second time it felt sticky. I looked at my sock and there was paint on it from one of the cracks between the wood panels.

My dad was up the day before Easter with his pick-up, to help me cart all the brush from winter prunings to the landfill. I was glad for the help, but also worried about it all being too much for him. He's 77, diabetic and overweight. We made 2 trips, then had lunch at the diner. He didn't want to stay long after that becus he wanted to make sure he got home before dark. He said the macular degeneration is making night vision difficult, and even his daytime vision is worse.

When it finally progresses from the "dry" stage to the "wet" stage, they will be able, he said, to give him an injection that will halt further progression and salvage whatever remaining vision he has. While I was anxious that it finally gets to the point where he can get that shot, he said he wasn't really looking forward to it and would just as soon it never came. Hey, if i can do an injection every day (for my MS), you can do this one shot, I said. What i didn't know is that the injection is straight into his eyeball (!) and he's understandably feeling very squeamish about that.

I really worry about him driving at all. He made the comment that it would be very difficult the day he has to give up driving all together. I told him it wasn't worth the risk of an accident, and privately felt a little relieved that he at last acknowledged he might have to stop driving some day.

It's really too bad that K. is moving out after 15 years together, 5 of them living together, but I could tell she has really been getting on his nerves. In the past, he never really seemed to want to talk much about it while K. talks about anything and everything, including their relationship, so i was getting a one-sided view of things.

I think they'll appreciate each other more when they're not living on top of each other, but i do worry about his health issues and him living alone now. He's too stubborn and independent to ask or accept help.

A good example: he told me that last 4th of July, he and K. had gone to watch the fireworks outside and were sitting on a park bench. They were going to get up, and he was unable to. He was having a "silent" heart attack and K. freaked and said we've got to get you to a hospital and my dad refused and said "relax." After about 20 minutes, he was able to get up and his doctor later confirmed he had a heart attack, the latest of several. I was kind of shocked that my dad would refuse medical treatment, incredulous, in fact. I wanted to say so, but I kept quiet. You see, K. has a kind of pushy, in your face personality, and that really gets on my dad's nerves. I don't want him to respond to me the way he responds to her. But i am still tempted to say something at some future point in time, like, hey dad, don't expect me to do nothing if you have a heart attack in my presence. I'm not going to ask your permission to call 911.

I was thinking, too, if he has to give up driving due to his deteriorating vision, I mulled over the possibility of my driving the 3 hours down to his place to pick him up, bring him back to my place and let him "vacation" with me for a week or more, then driving him back home. These days, he typically drives 3 hours to come out here and then drives back home the same day. He has spent the night, with or without K., a few times, but when i put my house ont he market 3 years ago, i got rid of the old double bed i had in the spare bedroom, so I don't really have an extra bed here. I'd like to get one so he can feel comfortable to stay over. The last time he stayed over, I insisted he take my bed and i slept on the floor of my office. I was miffed, because Luther chose to spend the night with him!

Of course, having my dad over for longer stretches of time would be more doable if I still weren't working, and I'm not sure how he would occupy himself here while i was away at work. I don't know. I just don't want him to start feeling isolated if he can't drive anywhere.

I'm so excited. I got a job offer from the Philadelphia Zoo as Head Pachyderm Keeper. The pay is good, benefits even better: they said I could take all the elephant poop I can fit in my trunk...no pun intended.... for my vegetable garden!

Sorry, I only get to do that once a year, folks. April Fool's!

It was a gorgeous day, sunny, high of 68, I think. Tomorrow will be even warmer.

I hauled another trunk-load of branches to the landfill and spent about $42 at Stop & Shop but I had oodles of coupons. Filled the trunk again with branches but realizing now i can't swing by the landfill on the way home from the medical study tomorrow because it's Good Friday and I think I saw a sign that they'll be closed.

I made a diced cucumber/tomato/onion, chickpea/feta cheese salad with ranch dressing. Yum. Put up some window screens so the cats could enjoy the breeze.

Painted the sun room floor. I got the gloss paint at Ace a few weeks back before realizing that if you want the gloss, it's not gonna be latex paint, but a "polyurethane xxx alyd" something or other. The main thing is, it doesn't clean up with soap and water, and since i hate having turpentine or other chemicals around the house, I bought some cheapy brushes at Xpect Discounts (.69 each) knowing I'd use them once and throw away with trying to clean them.

As expected, the bristles starting coming out as I painted. I just carefully pulled them out like so many fish bones when i saw them coming loose so they wouldn't get painted onto the floor.

I finished painting at 1 pm and checked it for drying several times today. I don't think I really need a 2nd coat, though I have most of the full gallon I'd purchased. It still looks VERY shiny, which I like a lot. But they say don't subject it to "heavy use" for 7 days, light use ok after 2 or 3 days, depending on temps and humidity levels.

They delivered the 4 x 6 bamboo rug I'd ordered for the sun room, but i saw immediately that while it's a good looking rug, it's NOT the one I ordered. What a nuisance. UPS is to pick it up and return to the company, but of course I have no real idea when they'll be here. I'm hoping not to miss them on their first attempt at pick-up.

Today was another trip to Yale for 2 medical research studies. I spent 2 hours at the first place; they took my blood, which is headed for the National Institute of Health. No rinky dink study here!

Happy to say that my careful MapQuesting of New Haven's many one-way streets helped me get from research study #1 to research study #2 with no problems. Even found a parking spot on the street easily.

Answered a bunch of questions to see if I qualified for the 2nd study (I do) and got $10 for doing so. I'll go back for the actual study where they'll do an EEG (electrodes on my head while i play computer games or something) and will earn another $40 for my trouble.

The key for me is trying to schedule 2 of these studies on the same day to make the 45-minute drive more worthwhile.

I have one more trip to make to return to the first study and after completing that last segment of the study, they'll mail me $206.

Felt very tired when i finally got home around 3:30 pm and after driving in the pouring rain on the interstate. But at least i'm learning my way around the big city.

Treated myself to a meatball grinder at Subway on the way home, and made one last stop at Ikea as well.

Personally, i like the new look. The white background somehow adds a lot more air to the screens and makes the site seem more contemporary to me. I agree, though, that I'd like to see room for a longer list of recent blog posts.

I notice, though, that even while I have inserted line breaks between paragraphs, it's all single spaced in the published posts. Nate, if you're reading...

March has turned out to be a great money month for me. In addition to my unemployment, I brought in an extra $1,069, and that wasn't even including the $3,968 from my IRS refund!

I made $815 from freelance work (2 press releases, a blog post and an article), found $1.96, sold something on Craig's List for $15, did some surveys and made a wonderful $200 from a market research focus group (all day) yesterday.

The focus group was very interesting, held at a beautiful hotel that looked more like a retreat. They fed us breakfast and lunch and we got out a little early, plus got paid in cash, so no complaints here!

I can't talk about the particulars, but it involved an actual class action lawsuit. I guess it's big bucks enough that the lawyers for both sides, who each gave us condensed presentations, wanted to see how things would pan out in front of a "mock" jury. In the afternoon our group of 40 was split into 2 separate "juries" to hash things out and i was surprised that only myself and one other person in my group sided with the plaintiffs. Let's just say that I have a big consumer advocacy streak in me, and the other side felt that if a corporation can get away with making more money at the expense of the customer, then that's ok, because Hey! That's the American way. Or so their thinking went.

I'm hoping to drum up a little more freelance work, so am sending out a "15% off, it's no April Fool's joke" flier to 3 key former contacts. Even if i don't get new work now, i was in need of a reason to contact them and remind them I'm still available, so this will accomplish that.

Not doing much this weekend, although I really should go to Staples as my ink cartridge is past done. I found a 15% off coupon for Staples, so that's where i plan to go.

Next week is another very busy week for me:
Monday: 2 different medical research studies. 1 is just the 2nd of 3 planned visits, so won't get paid til the 3rd is done, and the 2nd is a $10 questionnaire to see if I'm eligible for the larger survey. The biggest hassle, i'm guessing, will be finding a parking space in New Haven.

I mapquested everything and will hit Ikea afterwards, as well as the landfill on way home.

Tuesday: My dad is supposed to come up but am guessing we'll have to reschedule due to rain.

Wednesday: Help mom install an art exhibit at library

Thursday: Free day

Friday: A 3rd medical research study, so back to Yale.

i checked out Craig's list again and sure enough, three more studies I could apply for. They all don't pay as much as the one i already started (stress and overeating, 3 sessions, $200), BUT if I can schedule at least one of the new ones for the same day as my third and final session with the stress and overeating session, then it makes sense.

The one i booked has something to do with visual pictures and food and pays just $25 for one two-hour session. It's another Yale study, so its location is nearby the first study.

I'm waiting to hear back on another study (Anxiety/worry, yes i qualify these days) and pays $40 and another one on eating behaviors that pays $20 for 25 minutes of your time.

My dad's coming up next week to help me bring all the brush and tree branch prunings to the landfill. Tomorrow's the other $200 study, this one a market research study, not medical study, on social issues. The hardest part about this is getting there on time; have to leave the house at 6:30 am.

Last night was a free dinner/lecture on estates and wills. Dinner was Swedish meatballs, noodles, broccoli, salad and cookies for dessert. Yum.

Between these lecture dinners and the research studies, my calendar's looking pretty full. I want to squeeze in as many more as i possibly can before early April, when i hope to get a call from the census bureau about some work which i expect will be full time for a period of weeks, so i'll have to drop everything else when/if i start that.

Here at home, I've been so preoccupied by cutting up big branches into smaller branches that will fit into the trunk of my car that i haven't done a thing to ready my vegetable garden for spring planting. I think the peas could go in NOW. I'd better get tilling.

If so, I have $10 gift card I can mail you. PM me. Expires June 2, 2010.

Yesterday I drove into New Haven to participate in a medical research study. It involves three visits, answering a lot of paper questionnaires, 2 blood draws and urine samples. For this I'll earn $200 at a minimum, more if I agree to have my interview with the psychiatrist videotaped or if I win any money in their little gambling games (of the "would you rather have $20 now or $100 next year? variety).

The subject they're researching is the connection between emotions, stress and overeating.

I got a little lost trying to find the place, but this was probably the first time having my cell phone with me really came in handy. As soon as she told me "the big white building," I knew where it was.

Tonight I'm attending a Masonicares talk on estates and wills. I consider it entertainment and it includes a free dinner. It's right here in town.

Friday I'm doing an all-day market research study for which I'll be paid another $200. I tried to get 2 of my friends enrolled in the study, too, but they must've filled up the slots quickly because neither could get in. Unlike the medical study, which pays by check via snail mail several weeks after the fact, the market research study pays in cash before you leave for the day.

Since I opened up the sun room, I started thinking about how to deal with cushioning for the built-in benches. I realized that due to the way they were built, it would not be possible to buy ready-made cushions and it would also be real expensive to get custom-made cushions.



There's a 4-inch piece of wood that separates each window, and that wood extends down and touches the benches. The cushions would have to include a notched section in the middle to accommodate that piece of wood.

So to save money, I decided to buy standard and king-sized pillows for a more casual look, covered in nice shams that look as un-bedroom pillow like as possible.

My first stop was Wal-Mart, where I bought 3 king sized pillows and 2 standards, and on the way home I also stopped at Target, where I ended up buying 5 turquoise shams for those pillows. They have kind of a pebbled quilted look with the opening in the back, not the end, so I thought they'd work well.



When i got them home, i could quickly see that the pillows they were WAY too high and fluffy. I also realized I had 2 extra standard pillows in a closet that were fairly flat, so I decided to return all 5 pillows and not replace the 2 standards.

Then I checked out Target's pillows and decided these were much flatter and better for my needs, though they cost $25 each vs. $17 each at Wal-Mart.

Yesterday, after finishing up with my medical research study session, I stopped at Ikea, which was just around the corner and a place i rarely get to since it's close to an hour's drive. Ikea, I noticed, sold king-sized pillows for $9! Quality doesn't matter so much to me because they're just for sitting on, not for sleeping.

So....you guessed it, this morning I returned the 3 king pillows to Target for the credit and when I return to New Haven for my next session with that medical research study, I'll swing by Ikea and pick up just 2 of the king-sized pillows. (I've decided I don't need every inch of the benches covered in pillows.) It'll save me about $33 on the pillows alone, plus $25 for one returned sham.

I also picked up a set of 3 little white shelves I can put knickknacks on without worrying the cats will knock them over. They look really good.


The 3rd shelf is very small, so it may look better in one of the bathrooms.

Finally, I also ordered a 4 x 6 bamboo rug for $68 and spent $22 on a gallon of Ace paint for the floor (taupe).

It seems like I'm spending a lot, but I've decided to indefinitely defer the ceiling fan (with installation probably $400 range) because I'm concerned the box that would have to be built to hold it to the exposed ceiling wouldn't look good. For now, I can run a floor fan anywhere in there or in the family room, blowing through there.

I got my $4,000 IRS refund, so I've maybe spent $230 total on the sun room. I already transferred $3,000 to my online money market account, where I actually have a bigger balance than before I was laid off 6 months ago.

Oh, the large blue glass jar you saw in one of the photos above? I plan to get some white sand, fill it a third of the way, then put some seashells in it. I hate to pay for sand, so I may have to schedule a trip to the shoreline to take some from a public beach!

Not much else new. I spent a part of every day for the past 5 days or so, when the weather was so great, finishing cutting back my forsythia hedges and then cutting their long branches into 3 foot wide sections that will fit in my trunk. I keep the trunk loaded so that anytime I'm going past the dump, I can unload them. I still have more burning bush branches to drag from the yard to the driveway, which is command central for all my pruning leftovers. There's quite a pile.



The crocuses are in bloom...



...and Waldo is enjoying some catnip.

Today's the third and final day of this icky, rainy, damp weather.

I forced myself to tackle the wallpapering again. You know, the downstairs bathroom that's been out of commission for about 2 years now. Considering that even now, not working, I manage to go weeks between wallpapering the bathroom, getting even a few more pieces up there seems like an accomplishment to me. So I got exactly 2 more pieces up there and it took over an hour.

An added incentive is that I know that once the weather warms up, as it will later this week, I'll be hell bent on planting vegetable seeds and expanding my garden bed, or simply finding reasons to spend time outside. Finishing the bathroom wallpapering will be the last thing on my list.

So, here are a few shots of my progress.



Don't look too closely, there are many mistakes.

I spent hours poring over wallpaper designs online, but if I could do it over again, I'd pick the same pattern in a slightly lighter shade. I painted the cabinetry an ivory color that matches, and there's a new window in here (with tinted glass on the lower half for privacy, since it looks out onto my new sunroom). Yeah, it might seem a bit strange to have a window that looks out onto a sunroom (that used to be a screened porch), but it lets natural light in what would otherwise be a very dark bathroom. The fixture in here is also new and replaces some tacky brass sconces that were actually rusting, plus they were placed to the sides of this big mirror and because of the angle always cast a glaring light.



Oh my, look at all the glue i got on the mirror!

I anticipate a lot of trouble trying to cut the wallpaper around the circular base of that light fixture, so i may have to see if i can cut power to the light, disconnect the unit and try to prop it up on some kind of makeshift shelf for it while i wallpaper around it.

Once i finish this project, I shall NEVER wallpaper again. You'd think I'd be pretty good at it, having wallpapered my kitchen about 8 years ago....



This was the only wallpapering job where I had a helper. I love this toile pattern. My kitchen has a black, white and stainless steel color scheme. Here's a photo of it taken 3 years ago when I had it immaculate because I was trying to sell it, before my relationship, and the real estate market, fell apart:



It basically looks the same now except I got a new stainless steel fridge a few years ago.

My second wallpapering project was my upstairs bathroom....



Some visitors have actually thought that was real tile on the wall!


Here's a closeup of the same pattern. That's my mom's artwork.

And my last wallpapering project, before the horrid downstairs bathroom, was my office.





Here's a closeup of the pattern. Pretty, isn't it? I only wallpapered 2 of the walls in the office, but I still haven't gotten around to painting the remaining 2 walls a soft eggshell blue. (I hate white walls.)

The worst thing about wallpapering is that once you wet the paste on the back side, you have only minutes to position it correctly and start scraping out excess glue and bubbles. If you take too long, the paper starts getting tacky dry and can then be really hard to move around, resulting in wrinkles or worse, tears in the paper.

The other pain in the neck about wallpapering is that for it to really look good, you have to watch how often the pattern repeats and make sure you line it up correctly, or you'll see a mismatch from one piece to the next.

I hadn't thought it mattered with my bathroom wallpaper since it's such an abstract design, but yes, you can tell where I started and didn't bother matching up the paper's pattern. Matching the repeating pattern can also mean you'll waste a lot of paper, so that's why I'm already on my 2nd roll of paper for this small bathroom.

I just realized I had the perfect headline for this post, because that's exactly what was going on...I cooked, while the storm raged on.

It was a scrumptious day.

I made a big pot of pea soup which is still cooling on the stove. It's a bit on the watery side now, but it always thickens up nicely after sitting overnight in the fridge. I like to add carrots, parsnip, onion and celery/celery leaves to mine, plus this time I added a small amount of nitrite-free ham pieces.

I topped off my bowl of pea soup with the last of my homemade rice pudding with dried apricot. Heavenly. I mean, really good. I'm a pudding fan, and I'd rather have chocolate, rice, Indian, bread or tapioca pudding over cake or even pie!

I was surprised how well this turned out even while 2.5 of the 3 cups of milk called for in the recipe were skim milk. I had a small amount of 2% milk which also went in. I don't know why I don't make this more often. It was really delectable, and a good way to use my expensive $6.99 per bag of Trader Joe's California slab dried apricots, the best money can buy, in my opinion.

Can't say I did much of anything else today except hunker down during this gosh awful rainstorm.

I often bring up my 40 or so bookmarked gardening blogs and read through them, and I've done this already today.

My money karma is picking up steam lately after I was feeling so....moneyless.

A client sent a check in yesterday for $285. Today, I received a check for $245 from another client, the one I was afraid wasn't going to pay me. After a routine call to a focus group contact, I landed a seat in an unusual, all-day market research gig which pays $200 cash plus breakfast and lunch, and i've encouraged a friend to sign up to so we can drive down together. And I got my IRS tax refund deposited into my checking account, another $3600 odd dollars.

I'm really trying not to spend money, but i was feeling so restless today sitting home that I went grocery shopping just for a social outlet! I didn't need groceries, but perused all the shelves and still managed to spend $15.

Nothing much on the agenda today, but I happened to call one of two market research places in my area and they said come on down. Not sure it was worth it. (Note to self: Ask how much the survey(s) pay first before trekking down there.) I did 2 brief surveys, one of which involved eating Hershey's chocolate, but was paid just $5. Plus I found a $1 bill right on the floor of the Mall where the survey play is located. It took me a hour round-trip to drive down there and back, so I suppose I netted a few bucks after gas.

I suppressed an urge to buy a soft pretzel. It cost $2.39 and I told myself I could buy a loaf of bread with that money, so I was able to exit the Mall without spending the few dollars I'd just made.

On the way back, I stopped at the dump, having had the foresight to load my trunk up with fallen branches from the yard before leaving; I'd cut them up to fit the trunk the day before, so without having done that I wouldn't have had time to load the trunk up before heading for the survey. I have many more branches to bring to the dump, but would rather wait to bring more til i have a reason to head back in that area, saving myself an extra 6 miles of driving.

I have close to 100 miles on the car, more than I thought I'd have 11 days into the Put It in Park challenge for March. And I don't even have a daily commute!

I have about a half tank of gas left and my goal, perhaps unrealistic, is to make it last the rest of the month, or another 20 days.

I sent a late payment notice to a client who hasn't paid or contacted me since the last revision (and 3rd draft) of their project, despite several efforts on my part. I was steeling myself to have to pursue the matter eventually in small claims court. They responded to the email and said they overlooked it and the check was being mailed today, so that would be a very good thing as I can really use that $245.

As soon as I get that check, I will email her back and inquire as to what went wrong. I don't think they were unhappy with my writing, and I did see disagreement between the husband and wife co-owners as to the thrust of the piece, but you'd think after investing that much time they'd want to finish it. I'd like to retain clients at all times if at all possible, though my first concern right now is getting paid.

As for the CIO of the investment advisory firm who I found on Craig's List, I ended up spending about 6 hours editing his 11-screen Powerpoint presentation. Thus far, my worst fear about this dude seem accurate, ie, as soon as I sent my edits, I've heard nothing further from him. Just silence. He was under no obligation to pay me anything but assured me more than once that if he liked my work he would happily pay me, and there'd be future work. I'll just have to chalk that one up.

My cat just knocked over a partially filled pitcher of water. Thanks, Luther! Good thing I was home to wipe it off my wood floor.

I was the randomly selected winner of a contest on a gardening blog I read and I got the prize FedEx'd to me yesterday, a very nice gardening book.

This past Wednesday my mother and I attended a slide lecture by the artist Michael Whelan. I didn't know him before, but he's apparently a very successful fantasy/sci-fi artist who's done 350 book covers for Stephen King, Isaac Asimov and others. It was interesting, though not my personal style. There's a series of these lectures at the state college (free) and I hope we can see at least one more.

A friend told me about a copywriter job with an agency but when i called them, the job had already been filled. She suggested we get together now even though they don't have current openings. I scheduled a meeting with her for this Tuesday, then later decided to cancel it. I just didn't feel like schlepping down there for the dog and pony show, especially since I've never gotten a perm job thru an agency before and i guess i'd rather wait til there's a specific opening before going to interview with the agency. Do i have a bad attitude? Perhaps. Anyway, they've got my resume.

I rather like the ebb and flow of my non-working lifestyle these days. It's probably the closest thing to what it will be like to be retired, except i hope not to be on such a starvation budget then! What i mean by ebb and flow is that I'm never rushed, never have to get up earlier than I like and never have to just give in to a clockwork-like existence dictated by 9 to 5+ working hours. I like the freedom that comes with not having a schedule. Each day is a little different and each day offers new possibilities. Alas, it can't last, I need a paying job and I hope to find one soon.

Oh, yeah, i called my local census office the other day and asked if they're still hiring cus i haven't gotten a call yet. (I took the exam last year.) She said they will be thru early April but they go totally by scores. The higher scoring people get called first. She said the only way i could improve the chances of getting caled is if i wanted to retake the test. (I got an 89.) I don't think i feel like it.

Had a nice, albeit short, birthday lunch for my mom here on Saturday. As it turned out, she couldn't eat the cauliflower/cheddar soup I'd made becus she didn't bring her lactose pills. (I think she made up for it with the chocolate mouse cake.) I sent her home with the soup so she had it later.

I rearranged the front parlor.


The mural was painted by my mother in 2003. The French doors to the right lead to the family room, and from there you can access the sun room. The small rattan backpack on the floor at left was something I bought years on one of my trips to Bar Harbor, Maine. The antique trunk i picked up at an antique show in the area. I had the small table to right of the purple armchair stained to match the colors of the trunk.


This is the other end of the front parlor. The small, red oriental rug is one my mother brought home with her 30 years ago when she went to Morocco. The two wood lamps on the credenza were made by my grandfather, a master woodworker.

See what I mean when I say I don't like clutter? It's maybe a little too spartan and requires a few more items on the credenza with the ship.

I did so to try to accommodate a new upholstered chair I got, but becus the color is more gold than taupe, it doesn't really go well in this room anymore and so it's landed in the family room. Too much trouble to return it. I wrestled it up the basement stairs.

Egg-laying has picked up again and so my mother and i are the lucky recipients of my sister's chicken eggs.



You never know what color will pop out. Maybe someday, I'll get a cobalt blue egg.

Yesterday and today I did just a LITTLE bit of yardwork which mostly consisted of cutting up pine branches that dropped over the winter and dragging them and much lighter branches I pruned from the burning bush to the driveway, where my dad and i will eventually bring them to the dump in his pickup.

But I'm amazed at how sore I am. Either it's age I(I'm 50 now) or umm, I'm really out of shape. Or a little of both.

What's everyone's mileage so far in the "Put it In Park" challenge? I'm pretty sure I'm under 50 miles so far.

It was warm enough today...a high of 55 degrees....that I turned off the heat in the house this afternoon. I opened the front and back doors when the sun was shining on them and let the cats enjoy the view.

I need to get back to wallpapering the bathroom. I PROMISE I'll do it on the next rainy/cloudy day, which looks like it'll be toward Thursday or into the weekend. It's hard to work on it when the weather's nice.

I got my state tax refund a while ago, but am still waiting on my big IRS refund. Where's my refund? feature on IRS website indicates I'll have it by March 31 unless there's a problem. (Let's hope there's no problem.)

Not only are my snowdrops in bloom now, but I see the autumn joy sedums are just breaking the earth's surface, and my daffodils are also popping up, about an inch high now.

Spring is really very nearly here!

Yesterday, I discovered the snowdrops under the big white pine were in bloom. And through the weekend, temps will reach up to close to 50 degrees.

It'll really make me want to get out and do yardwork. I need to drag all the pruned burning bush branches from the middle of the yard to the driveway, where I'm collecting them and counting on my dad to follow up with a visit so we can haul to them to the dump with his pickup soon.

I'm having my mother and sister over for my mom's birthday lunch today. On the menu: cauliflower/cheddar soup garnished with sliced scallions (awesome), some garlic Naan bread, a Trader Joe's appetizer I just pop in the oven and for dessert, a luscious Trader Joe's cake. My sis is bringing a salad.

Yesterday, I responded to a Craig's List job for a contract financial copywriter. I can't tell you how stoked I was when the head of the firm, an investment advisory company that manages portfolios with a minimum $1 million, called me a few hours later.

We (he, mostly) spoke for 5 or 10 minutes and he asked me, as a "test," to edit a draft pitch book he would email me. I said fine. (He's basically looking for a writer who can write the company story in a compelling, passionate way.)

After I got off the phone with him, I perused his website, which didn't look very professional and which was all about him. I didn't see any evidence of other employees and i felt the website, for an investment advisory firm, lacked substance, made claims without backing them up, etc. I then viewed a video he'd made, not on You Tube, but someplace similar. Hate to say it, but he came off as kind of a quack, and again, not much of substance there. RIA firms usually very conservative and seek to provide confidence in their expertise. I can't say he did that for me.

I googled his company and name, and mostly all there was was plenty of yellow pages and similar directory listings, which of course anyone can do. I checked the NYT, WSJ, USA Today and Boston Globe, all papers he said he'd been mentioned in, and not one of them produced his name when I did a search in the paper's archives. Hmmm. It also appeared he's moved around a lot in recent years, from Boston and Maryland to Stamford and New Haven, CT.

To top it off, I haven't received the pitch book he told me he'd email me last night. Perhaps for the best?

When will i catch a break???

Well, it's a beautiful day and I'm going to enjoy it. I'm afraid there will be no wallpapering today.