I forgot to mention the CD player in my car is broken. It was working just fine and then it wouldn't turn on. This wouldn't be too bad but the radio is also part of the CD player and so is the clock. Fortunately the car does have another clock its just never been set, so I had to dig out the manual and set it.

If we didn't spend so much time in the car it wouldn't matter that much but I think I'll have to get a new one put in before I go insane with the kids and their constant backseat bickering. Whoever said music soothes the savage beast wasn't kidding. Not talking about me here. I'm talking about the kids.

First I'll talk to DH about it though and make sure it isn't a fuse. I don't think it could be and the CD player is 8 years old. The place that installed it doesn't even exist in our county anymore. It of course has a CD in it, too. Annoying especially because it is one of mine and not the kids's.

I'll price them on Wednesday when I come in for physical therapy. Hope its not too pricey. All I want is a simple one CD player with a radio. No 5 disc changer business. No MP3 adapter. I'd even settle for a tape deck.

Meanwhile, I have my tape recorder and I guess I will bring it and my old tapes along. That should be a hoot. Have to be careful. My taste in music in high school and college ran the gammut between Paula Abdul, Heart, Howard Jones, David Bowie and Alice Cooper. Can't be playing Alice Cooper in front of the children. Ever.

Yesterday was a no spend day. And I had lunch over at the neighbor's, so free food I didn't have to cook, too. They had a barbecue for their daughter's birthday.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned the new neighbors yet. They moved into the house next door that the creepy neighbor used to live in. They have a seven year old granddaughter that lives with them and a 14 year old son of their own. The little girl gets along great with both my kids.

The boy seems to have taken a shine to Rose. I'll have to watch that as she's only eleven but is tall, a pretty blue-eyed blond and chesty for her age. And has hips. Already the hour glass figure. Not sure I want a fourteen year old boy sniffing around her. We are always very careful with Rose as she acts very mature for her age. She got hit on for the first time when she was 9 by a fifteen year old boy who had no idea she was that young. He did it front of me and DH, too. Needless to say he apologized profusely when I told him her age! LOL So this sort of thing happens to her quite a bit and so we are just extra careful.

I spent the rest of yesterday watching bad SF movies on sci-fi channel. I like bad SF movies, though. Although Mansquito was a bit much. Liked A.I. Assault and Android Apocolypse quite a bit though.

Anyway, today is a no spend day also. Not going anywhere or doing anything.

So a long while back I was thinking about doing plasma donation to earn a little extra money. I kind of looked at it but never really went into it deep enough to see what it was about.

So I've been researching it some more and specifically the company that has a branch in my county. They pay $25 per donation and you can donate twice a week. It takes about 1.5 hours to donate plasma and it is different from regular blood donation because they put everything but the plasma back into you. It takes the body 48 hours to replace what is lost from donation.

So they are paying $16 an hour basically. Not bad for lying on your back and reading a book or taking a nap. I'm not sure if they take money out for taxes or not, that wasn't listed on their website. But they do require a social so I'm betting they probably do, which knocks it down a bit. Of course, they may just require it because you might have to be a U.S. citizen. You also have to bring a photo I.D. and a current utility bill for proof of permanent residence. They don't want homeless people or drug addicts coming in off the streets for health issues.

I can donate if my high blood pressure is under control with medication, which it is, and with my thyroid medication, as well. I have to not be currently sick and if I've been on antibiotics they have to be out of my system for a set number of days. So I qualify if I wanted to set up an appointment any time soon. My past illness does not disqualify me from donating as it has been 2 years.

I'm still not 100% sure, but I keep thinking about it. If I donated twice a week for a whole year I'd earn $2600. But I know of coures, that I will get sick or have weeks where the kids are too sick for me to go or we go on a trip or whatever. But I reckon I could still make $2000 a year.

The only thing that might be an issue is it is 23 minutes from my house. Which means gas. Gas is currently $2.55 a gallon and it takes about 2.8 gallons to do a round trip from my house. At best that is about $7.50 per trip. So subtract that from the $25 and its $17.50. I figure I can combine it on Friday's with my regular trip to town for grocery shopping and banking, so one day I wouldn't be coming in for just that, which means one donation at $17.50 and one at $25, or a net gain of $42.50 per week. Still worthwhile I think.

I'm not one who is afraid of needles or having things sticking out of my veins. I had that going on for a good portion of 3 years of my life, so it isn't a problem. But I am still a tad hesitant. It just seems kind of creepy. I think I'm probably blowing it all out of proportion. I just keep thinking how nice it would be to have regular $50 donations going into the EF every week. Or finally open a spousal IRA.

I spent $15.49 at the grocery store today. I used the self-check and I think it would have been faster to just go to the express lane. Looking up produce is a pain as you have to go through all the touch screens. Everything is in alphabetical order and so of course nectarines were on page 10 and plums were on page 12. No shortcuts, no clicking on the letter it starts with. And once I entered in the nectarines, I had to start all over again with the plums. Some stores you can just enter in the number of the produce and it is much faster. So I guess I'll stick to using the self check at Fred Meyer because it has nice shortcuts, and avoid it at this grocery store.

I cleaned out my purse today and added $6 in ones and 51 cents to my coin jar.

I received a $4 check from ACOP today. It will go into savings on Tuesday and then I will send it off to the EF at ING with the regular deposit on Thursday.