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Archive for February, 2007

Finally the Bills

February 28th, 2007 at 05:35 pm

Okay, I'm finally getting the bills posted that I paid off Friday's paycheck.

$910.37 Medical Mortgage
$124.00 Water/Sewer (2 months)
$100.00 MBNA MC
$ 90.00 Road Assessment Fee (Year)
$ 41.82 Phone (Home)
$185.50 Car Insurance (3 months)
$ 20.00 Rose's School Lunch Account
$ 67.42 SFBC
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1539.11 Total Bills

Beautiful Day

February 28th, 2007 at 04:29 am

We had a gorgeous sunny day today. Almost all of the snow has melted, it is down to maybe 1 inch to 1/2 inch in places. It would have been a great day for hanging laundry if I hadn't already spread it over the drying racks to dry inside last night. Oh, well.

Today was a no spend day. I did a load of dishes and vacuumed the living room. Then I wrote for 6 pages.

I wrote 8 pages last night and 2 the night before, if I remember correctly. It might have been 3. I need to go back and count everything up again, I've lost track. I think its in the 170's. I now have 8 chapters written in order and then a ton of out of order "scenes" that will get worked in as I go. Some of the "scenes" are 1 or 2 pages and some are closer to 10. I never could completely write something in order, always get flash forwards, as I call them.

The more I write, the more I am thinking this may need to break down into four books, one per year that covers the story. Otherwise its going to be way too long. I don't want to be Harry Turtledove or J.K. Rowling and cause carpal tunnel syndrome to my readers from holding heavy books if my books ever do end up getting published.

Still no news on the PTR payments. I think I am going to quit them all. Now that I am writing so much I'd rather use that time on it. Much more productive and a possible much larger payoff in the end.

Post # 5 Today

February 27th, 2007 at 01:28 am

I guess I got the posting bug today. Anyhow, today is technically a no spend day, even though I am writing out bills, I won't mail them until tomorrow. Did not go anywhere, did not spend anything. I'll post later on what bills I paid and how much.

Easy Dinner

February 27th, 2007 at 01:26 am

I have been cooking a potroast in the crock pot today, just seasoned with Lawry's seasoned salt. Just now I added some cut up baby red potatoes, carrots, a parsnip, a turnip, and some acorn squash chunks and will let it cook an hour or so longer, checking for tenderness to see if they are done after an hour or so. I love slow cooked beef with winter vegetables. Yummy. And there is plenty extra for freezing for future use.

Waiting on TinklyCash

February 27th, 2007 at 01:22 am

I went to check up on my payment from TinklyCash and I am 441st in line waiting to receive payment. Well, that doesn't sound good. I have not received a note from them that payment will be delayed, so I am kind of surprised that there is such a huge backlog, usually if they are late they are very good about sending stuff out.

They have always paid in the past, even though it took 3 weeks one time, they told us why beforehand. Usually they paid the next day. I hate to give up on them, so I think I will wait a bit longer and see if I at least move up the list at all.

I know there was an earthquake in the islands where this is based, they sent that note out beginning of January that it had messed with some undersea cables or something that interferred with online banking, so I'm more likely to give them more of a chance.

Outlook on Dayslook Not Good

February 27th, 2007 at 01:17 am

Well, I have a feeling that Dayslook is a non-legitimate PTR. On my first cash out, they are several days late on payment already. Oh, they sent out a notice saying they were waiting on payment from someone else before they did payouts themselves, but its been quite some time now, a couple of weeks, so I will eliminate them from use. They are right up there with SeekBizs, non-payers.

ReadRevenue No Longer Pays

February 27th, 2007 at 01:14 am

I am sorry to say this but I have to withdraw my recommendation of ReadRevenue as a good PTR site. They claim payment within 48 hours and for all of 2006 they made payments promptly and I never had a problem with them. But they have paid out nothing since December. I've cashed out twice with them, hoping the first time was a glitch.

The first time was on January 13, 2007 and despite 8 emails that I have sent starting within 5 days of the missing payment, I have had absolutely no response from them. I cashed out again 0n February 21. Today is the 26th. Well past the 48 hours they post on their website that they will pay to paypal by. It should have come on Friday.

I did some research and from what I can find online, no one else has received payment from this company since December. So don't waste your time on it anymore if you had signed up because I said it was legitimate. It no longer is.

Weird Weather and Bits and Pieces

February 26th, 2007 at 12:05 am

It snowed most of last night, then when the sun came up it started melting right away. It got up to 51 degrees and now as the sun is heading down it is raining ice, so I am sure as soon as the temp drops in the dark it will snow again all night, and melt again all day tomorrow. We are left with a crusty 2 inches at the moment.

I picked up the kids and the laundry from Mom's. She was so great to do it all. Well, not all, I've been doing the towels at home and hanging them on the drying racks. I do look forward to my new dryer when I get around to being able to get it. I will still line dry and rack dry to a certain extent even after. But I want the option of using my dryer in a case where someone's coat gets soaked but not dirty or same with shoes.

I am feeling a little better, I got some serious sleep Friday, didn't do that great last night, but Friday helped so much it didn't matter too much. I made the kids clean up the living room, they had trashed it royally before going to Mom's for the weekend, so I saved it for them to clean! Hey, they need to earn their allowances.

I am almost caught up on dishes. I have half a load in the sink still, and am currently washing a load and did another one this morning. I really let that slide while sick, only washing when we ran out of something. I did rinse everything so it didn't stink or mold, though. So it was mostly a question of just running everything through.

I have picked up one less than frugal habit this last year. I buy the jumbo aluminum foil from Costco and I use it to line my baking sheets. Then I don't have to clean my baking sheets. It is a bit wasteful environmentally but saves me time and I'm not trying to scrub burnt on cheese or sauce or whatever off the sheets. The foil does not end up being recycleable as it is not cleanable.

The kids have gone off down the road to play with some other kids so I am going to do some writing. I did 3 pages this morning before I picked up the kids. I'm really in the zone now. That puts me at 158. Go me!

Not Much to Report Today

February 25th, 2007 at 06:58 am

It was a no spend day. I didn't leave the house. I wrote 30 pages. Talked to DH on the phone for an hour. Got some rather good salary news but until it is signed on the dotted line I won't really allow myself to believe it.

If, if, if everything that he is currently being told is true, we aren't going to have to worry about money the same way again.

Obviously we will have to worry about it to some extent as in, where does this go and what to do with that. But...our debt problems will begin to vanish rapidly and we'll be out of credit card debt faster than I'd ever dreamed.

Oh, I want to shout it from the rooftops, but I'm afraid that if I do, it will disappear. So I am being quietly optimistic without 100% believability. It is the same company after all is said and done.

Snow Go Round Again

February 24th, 2007 at 05:20 am

I woke up to six inches of snow this morning after two gloriously beautiful days of 50 degree weather. Waiting for the bus this morning made us all look like we'd been frosted it was coming down so hard, those ginormous fluffy flakes the size of a quarter if you know the type. It was beautiful but I thought we were done. I guess I can thank my lucky stars that we didn't get feet like other people across the country have had to deal with.

It started melting around noon, dropping huge loads onto the roof from the cedar trees. It was down to about 3 inches when I left to take the kids in to spend the weekend with my parents and my sister's youngest boy. (And if you heard a shout of joy around 6:00 PST tonight, that would have been me leaving my parent's house free and clear.

I love my children dearly but I was very much ready to love them at someone else's house for a bit. Two weeks of the flu with cranky kids followed by a 4 day holiday weekend and me not getting enough sleep the last two nights, does not make for good family harmony. If I had to hear "She's on my couch cushion!" "No, he's on my couch cushion!" one more time I think I may have gone mental. Especially since the middle couch cushion between them is supposed to remain empty to prevent such arguments from happening in the first place, but someone always wants to put their feet up.

I don't have to pick them up until Sunday noontime so I will have lots of time to write tomorrow. That I am looking forward to. I did some serious pondering on the drive home and figured some more stuff out plotwise, so I am quite happy with it.

I did my shopping after letting the kids off, major monthly grocery shop plus a WalMart shop as I needed OTC meds, including the type you have to sign in blood for at the pharmacy (Sudafed, Children's Motrin Cold) to replace what was used up during the flu. I also got motor oil, goldfish crackers, nasal spray, a new drying rack, and a new George grill. Kind of an eclectic lot. But I didn't have any impulse buys at WalMart and I can't often say that. I will need to do a Freddy's run for organic milk when I pick up the kids but then we should be set for a fair bit.

I wrote 3 pages last night, which puts me at 125, just over 1/3 of the way to my yearly goal. Yay, me.

I also bought some food from the Schwan's guy today and used $20 for gas.

Savings Update

February 23rd, 2007 at 10:57 pm

Yesterday was the day of the auto deposit of $10 to savings. Today I transferred it to checking and then it sent it off to ING. The new total in ING will be $326.53.

I also cashed out $5 at TinklyCash last night, which should show up by Monday latest. They tend to pay within 24 hours but weekends can be iffy.

My George is Kaput

February 23rd, 2007 at 03:41 am

My George Foreman grill died an early death about 10 days ago. I use this thing constantly and hadn't even had this upgrade for a year. Something shorted out while I was cooking, I think there was a power surge. I checked the fuse box but it was fine, I tried other outlets, but no go. It is officially dead.

I think this is what has been leading me to not cook, well aside from the flu, because it makes it so much easier to make meat quickly. Not having one is causing me to spend money on less healthy convenience foods.

Well, tomorrow is payday and I think I am going to buy a new one. I probably could have with the amounts I've spent on convenience this week. At least there will be 2.5 hours of overtime on this check, which should cover it. I'm just glad they are not as expensive as they used to be.

I spent $11.64 buying a family size can of beef stew, a family size can of chicken noodle soup, and a normal size can of chili. From the gas station. I definitely need my grill back. I'm too lazy or too tired to cook consistently without it, even though I know how quite well.

I wrote 12 pages last night, which puts me at 121. Two pages to go to be 1/3 of the way to my goal of 365 pages written this year. I'm doing pretty good, writing every day at this point, when the most I was hoping for when I set this goal was a couple of hours a week.

In the past I always just wrote when the mood hit me, it was more of a hobby, just something I did. I'm trying to treat it more like a part time job. I still enjoy it of course, but I'm making sure I put the time in and I think that is really important to achieving my ends.

Working on this book is giving me ideas about the one that I finished a year or two ago but was unhappy about something and unable to figure it out at the time. I think when I finish this one, I can go back to the other one and fix it. Because I'm putting the time in daily, making the habit become second nature, it is so much easier to see gaps and fix them.

Boomeyer asked what it was about and all I can say at this point is that its a coming of age story that follows the lives of 4 girls keenly affected by the death of one of their friends and how it shapes the people they become over the next four years.

Kids seem Better

February 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 am

Both kids seem better today. Tobias woke up feeling pretty good, even ate a little something and was not running a fever so he decided to go to school with the injunction to call me to come get him if he started feeling poorly. Rose seems 100% now, so that is nice.

It's a gorgeous day here today. It's only 42 but the sun is out and its very clear. Both google weather and msn weather say it was supposed to snow. It did yesterday but it was too wet and did not stick except on the shoulders of the foothills. And there are no clouds in the sky, just a very pretty shade of winter blue. I thought about hanging laundry out, but I wasn't sure if it would dry with it being this cold and no wind. It tends to dry faster in the house unless its at least 55 degrees outside.

I spent a little money today at the gas station. Got a large pepperoni pizza and a bag of chips. So totally not a necessary purchase, but I'm still in a very anti-cooking mood right now. I think a couple more good nights of sleeping will help with that immensely.

I wrote 2 pages last night. That puts me to 108, I think. I'll have to go back and check. 14 more pages to go and I am 1/3 of the way to my goal.

I've been working my way through the commentaries of the second season of the new Doctor Who while doing my PTR emails. Lots of interesting info and it gives me something to listen to while I do the mind-numbing pointing and clicking. Last night I was able to cash out $5 with a new one and $3 with an old one. So I should see that show up in my paypal account on Friday at the latest. I'm very close to cashing out on another $5 one and another $3 one. I still have never heard back from ReadRevenue about that lost payment 1/13/07. It's probably a lost cause. I did send them another email about it last night.

I paid my car insurance online today, 3 months @ $185.50. $5 of which was because I split it in two payments instead of paying it in full in December.

DH ordered a pair of size 16W shoes online and spent $40 plus shipping. He put it on the credit card so we will add that amount to our regular payment. DH has a very hard time finding shoes that fit his foot and neither one of us can stand the service at the local Foot Locker. Which is really too bad. The local Lady Foot Locker has excellent service and the guys need to take a lesson from them. And I've told management so after the last time.

Okay, I think that covers all the spending for today.

Spent a Little

February 21st, 2007 at 02:20 am

We went and got take out tonight and spent $13.86 for the three of us. Tobias threw up in the car on the way home. Fortunately I had an empty 22 ounce cup to hand back to him in time, so it didn't get all over the car or him. I hope it was just car sickness. He does get it sometimes. He seems fine now. Well, I suppose I will send him to school tomorrow and if he gets sick there I will just go and get him. He's not running a fever.

Today was the last day of the mini-winter break. It would have been all week but they are making up snow days W-F this week. Rose is completely over the flu and Tobias is over the worst of it, just a little sniffly still. I will be happy to see them back in school. Rose missed all last week and Tobias missed Thursday and Friday. They both are anxious to go back and the advice nurse I talked to today said they could as long as there was no fever or coughing.

As for goals, well, I wrote one page last night, didn't work on anything else, though. Oh, well, I am 4 days off caffeine, so I guess that was one of my goals, too, to get off the soda completely. Don't drink coffee.

Future Budget Plans

February 20th, 2007 at 06:11 am

I was playing with Lau's template again today (not really Lau's, just that's where I got the link) and figuring out what I could do to pay off the debt once the promotion goes through and the higher paychecks start coming in. If we buckle down and really go at it, only leaving out enough for a car payment, it looks like we can pay off our credit card debt in three and a half years. Just by upping payments $500 a month. That would still leave us with $100 to put in the EF and $300 to make a car payment.

Plus that doesn't include slapping the tax refunds on it each year, either. We'll always have one with this job, just no way around it.

I don't know if we'll want to go at it full force, I know DH wants to take another larger Disney type vacation around 2008 or 2009. But its nice to know what we could do!

Of course, that doesn't include any money I generate through surveys, click-thrus, product trials, PTR's and hopefully getting my book published when I'm done writing it. The first four things go to the EF. I haven't thought much about the other as it still seems a dream that I might end up getting paid for what I love to do most. So intangible still, though and not at all to be relied upon.

Goals

February 20th, 2007 at 01:10 am

Wrote 3 pages last night, I believe that puts me at 106 for the year. The little book is coming along just fine, I'm on the seventh chapter now. I'm really going to do this.

Leftover Day

February 20th, 2007 at 12:04 am

Today is leftover day in my quest for good food management. Well, its leftover day for the children, anyway. I don't have any leftovers but they sure did. So Rose cleaned out the last of the macaroni and a slice of pizza and Tobias cleaned out the half can of chili, a serving of green beans, and 2 breadsticks for lunch today. With us being sick with the flu we've had some convenience foods this week. Most of it canned or frozen.

I miss my good wholesome homemade fare, but this is the first day I felt like cooking in the last week or so. But first I was getting the other stuff cleared out of the fridge. Tonight's dinner will be homemade again. Beef ribs, baked potatoes, salad, and broccoli/cauliflower. Yummy.

Oh, Fiddlesticks!

February 19th, 2007 at 09:43 am

Okay, so I'm over in the forums again (I know, I know) and I have finally made it to 100 posts, so I decided to wander over to the 100 posts club and...there's nothing there! I feel cheated.

Lazy Kind of Day

February 19th, 2007 at 02:44 am

Not much going on today. I wrote 5 pages last night before I went to sleep. Today I finished off season 4 of 24, but I still have to watch the bonus disc.

I need to do a load of dishes and a load of laundry and fold what is currently on the drying racks, but I am procrastinating fiercely instead.

Today was a no spend day.

More Car Looking

February 18th, 2007 at 04:49 am

Hanging out at my favorite car dealerships website for a bit today and they have 3 nice used cars, all the same make and model, just different model years and amounts of mileage and prices. They have tons of this model with cloth seats but we like the leather/leatherette type better as they are so much easier to clean with the two kids. Once you've had kids barf in the backseat of your car you'll see the difference in clean up time and ease.

Anyway, two of them are white cars with tan interior, virtually identical except on is a 2002 and one is a 2005 and of course mileage and price vary quite a bit, but even the 2005 with low mileage is about $8000 to $10,000 less than a current year model, depending on interior dodads. Our current sedan is a white car with tan interior so we'd be used to it, even if white is not my favorite color for a car, it does give good visibility at night, except in snow. The other car is silver with gray interior and is a 2003. Again, silver not my favorite color but I do like it, just not sure I want to be driving a dark car at night. Mileage is 32mpg hwy/28 mpg city.

Its not like what is available now matter, though. We have to get to the promotion and raise in April first. But I still like to go and look.

Just a Review of my Favorite Show Doctor Who

February 18th, 2007 at 12:54 am

One of the benefits of being sick, one of the few, is that everyone stays down longer, either on the couch or in bed, so I have had a fair bit of time to get caught up on reading the blogs. I don't read all of them, but I do try to read most of them. There's just a few that I skip due to excessive bad spelling or er, umm...boredom, but otherwise I pretty much read them all. So its good to be caught up again. And do so from my bed with my laptop.

I also got to finish watching my entire birthday present by last night. Well, I haven't done all of the commentaries, but everything else though. It was only 15 episodes for a whole season, which is hard when you are used to 22 but that's the BBC programming for you. I guess I should be happy there is more than six per season, like Red Dwarf was when it came out.

So, series 2 of the new Doctor Who was amazing. It took me about 3 episodes to adapt to the new lead though I liked him from the start, but by the time I got to the end it was like Christopher who? And that's hard for me to think considering I thought Christopher Eccelstein was far and away the best I'd ever seen in the role. But this David Tennant fellow, he's going to do great things with this role. It's his now.

But far and away it was Billie Piper as Rose that blows me away every time. If that girl does not end up as an Oscar or Emmy winner or whatever they have in England of the equivalent than there is no justice in the world of television and movies.

Anywho, I've been watching Doctor Who since 1974, when I was four years old (it started in 1963) and there has only ever been one episode that made me really, really sad, which was when Adric dies, back in the era of Doctor #4. But the season finale of this, oh my gosh, I was sobbing for the last 8 minutes of the show. It so broke my heart. I usually don't get that in to shows, but this just was gut-twisting and heart-wrenching. I loved it and hated it all at once.

And I absolutely cannot wait for what happens next. Let's just say the one day shipping was well worth the price!

If you've never watched Doctor Who, I'd highly reccommend the new stuff. If you like sci-fi, high camp, time travel, serious drama, and interesting relationships all tied together, its well worth giving it a shot. It is not classic Who, which was marvelous in its way, but it is even better. Seasons 1 and 2 are available through Netflix. If you like the new Battlestar Galactica or shows like Buffy or Angel, you won't be sorry you gave it a shot. Its better than all of them.

Now, on to disc 5 of season 4 of 24, which has been patiently waiting for me while I go through my little sci-fi frenzy with Doctor Who.

Library Refund

February 17th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

A while back my son lost a library book so we had to pay for it. Well, it turned up and our library has a policy that if you find it within a year and turn it back in, you can get your money back. So today in the mail we received a check from the library for the book we turned in. But they issued it in my six year old son's name. They've never done that before, they have always put it in a parent's name. Fortunately he has an account I can cash it through, but it is annoying to have to take the extra step of going to that CU when the money needs to be end up in a different one. Oh, well, it is $8.89 and it will eventually make its way into ING to the EF.

Words from Fingertips & Mouths & Chicken Hatching Dreams & Medical non-Marvels

February 17th, 2007 at 06:12 am

Yes, all right, I'm being a tad bit pompous with the title, I admit it. But, it has definitely been that kind of day. I am now up to 97 pages, although about ten of those were just dreaming...or plotting...or character development...or bits of dialogue or "scenes." Still that leaves me with 87 good pages and lots of ideas. Got to the point where the story was writing itself for a bit. Always love that place. I really am going to DO THIS this year.

And DH and I talked on the phone and he was called into the office of the head dude and he started talking salaries...still don't know if I believe "them" but they are talking a $14K raise with the new position, 10 hour days $450 a day, and that's starting wage. That would give us an additional almost $900 per 4 week period, net. Oh, what I couldn't do with $900 a month extra.

Yes, the dreaming has started, though I still don't believe "them" yet. I don't trust them not to pull the rug out. Even if they are training DH already. Even if...

No pre-spending of course, but dreams...financing a new to us car and still having $400 to $500 to pay down debt and build up an emergency fund every 4 weeks. Or saving half to pay for a car in cash or mostly in cash up to when the current 15 year old jobby goes belly-up and adding $100 a month to the EF and still paying down debt.

But there is no official start date yet. Still saying late March to late April, so...well, I suppose living in suspense is something I've grown rather accustomed to...

Speaking of which I got the results of my CT scan and I am off to see a specialist sometime in the not to distant future and I don't wanna. I still think old doc is overreacting. The scan was clean, so why? Because old doc is paranoid of missing something?

Oh, I know, the last thing I need is another tumor damaging my kidney, but it didn't show up, for pete's sake. Sometimes symptoms are there for completely different reasons. Like a UTI for example. Sorry if TMI. Perfectly natural explanation. It does not mean there is another carcinoid tumor lurking...Plus, they have always been benign when they were there and the only one that really did serious damage was the one that grew through my appendix. Sigh.

But I'll go anyway. I just don't wanna. Medical is expensive. And it doesn't feel the same as the other times. And I don't want another slice and dice session. They better give DH this promotion like they promised. One month of the raise should cover the medical costs incurred between now and April. Fun.

Oh, did I mention both kids now have the flu? The real flu, not the stomach virus thing often mistaken for the flu by folks that don't know what the influenza virus actually entails. Thank goodness its not the stomach thing. I'm not sure I could cope with it coming out both ends of both kids when I still am not 100% on top of fever, chills, bone aches, headaches, respiratory gunky stuff, coughing and sore throat. Rose is on her way back up and Tobias is holding his own and doesn't seem to be getting it as badly as Rose did, but that's par for the course. T has a much stronger immune system than R and always has.

I am glad it is a 3 day weekend so I don't have to fight with T again about staying home from school. This thing is contagious!

Money to Savings

February 16th, 2007 at 02:27 am

Today was the auto deposit of $10 to savings so I transferred that to ING along with the $9.86 I received from the auction of the boots and an additional 14 cents to round it to an even $20.

That brings the total in my ING account, which is my EF, to $316.53. I have not transferred the other auction money yet. I may end up having to use it to pay for the CT scan so its just in the CU savings account for now, with its almost invisible interest rate.

Good Week for No Spend Days

February 15th, 2007 at 04:37 am

Almost every day this week has been a no spend day and today was one as well. Tobias now has a cough and the chills so I'm pretty sure he's down with the flu now as well as Rose. He will not be going to school tomorrow no matter how hard he fights me. He hates missing school! The last time I made him stay home he didn't speak to me for almost the whole day.

They had both been trying to talk me into going out for dinner or getting take out. We are having freezing rain and a lot of it and even if they weren't sick, I'm not about to go out in that stuff. And I didn't want to go out anyway. I think I'm through the worst of the flu but I don't need a relapse and I still am very tired and needing a lot of sleep. I wish I'd made it in to get my flu shot this year.

So I made macaroni for dinner which was easy, if not very fast and added some taquitos, one of the few processed food products I still buy, and some grapes. Not a grand nutritional meal, but cheap, made with food on hand and low effort.

I think I may pack up the kids tomorrow and go be sick at my mother's house for the day. She has satellite TV and that would keep the kids from getting on each other's nerves, too much and give me a chance to keep resting.

Taxes and Other Taxes

February 15th, 2007 at 01:12 am

I forgot to mention that I mailed off our tax refund papers on the 2/12/07 so we should be seeing a refund within 5 to 6 weeks. DH makes too much for us to qualify for free online filing, our taxes are too simple (we don't deduct, we check but standard has come out better every year so far) to purchase tax software to efile for free. So we deal with having to mail it in and wait. We do have it direct deposited each year so that makes the wait about one week less.

We are getting back a little over $500 more than we expected, when DH figured stuff out based on last years forms. I like this years forms much better! We will use the extra to either fix the dryer or buy a new one and anything leftover goes into the summer sports camp fund.

Our property tax bill came in the mail. First half is not due until the end of April. I was really excited as the taxes have dropped by over $100. The school bond on our elementary school expired, so ten years later it is now paid for. That's kind of an exciting thing, too. I'm sure the school district will be putting up a bond for either a new elementary or a second junior high within the next year or so.

The population is exploding out here, probably because it is one of the few places in western Washington where you can still buy a house for less than $100,000. Of course, the developers are working on changing that, building really out of character for the neighborhood, fancy shmancy two story houses with double garages that dominate the 3/8 acre lots. That type of house needs at least 2/3 of an acre to look right.

Most of the houses out here are simple one story 2 and 3 bedroom houses, though ours is a 4, and most people do not have garages. You can really tell which houses were built before the last 4 years because they blend in well with the rest of the houses out here. There were no two story houses in our division before 4 years ago. But neighborhoods evolve, even it it doesn't mean getting better. Not that it is really getting worse, just out of character. Property values are up according to the realtors and banks, but not the assessors, so far.

This and That and a Bit Else

February 14th, 2007 at 05:00 am

Rose has been sick the past two days and has not gone to school. I had to drop her off with my mother this morning so I could go to my first cranial sacral therapy session. I have to admit while I was lying there it felt a bit like voodoo magic and I kept thinking, well, this won't accomplish much. But surprisingly it made me feel better somewhat. Not a huge transformation but a noticeable improvement. Enough for me to go back for an additional 5 appointments and allow it a real go.

My birthday present had arrived by the time I got back, the new Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series. I've spent a few hours watching the first disc and doing all the commentaries while I did my PTR's, and watching the extras on the first disc. Now I've started episode 3 on the second disc.

It is really very good. I wasn't sure what to expect. I never am when they change out the lead. For those of you who don't know, the main role is set up in such a way that if the doctor "dies" his body regenerates and looks completely different, but he is still the same character with a few different personality quirks. This is a very clever way of replacing an actor who leaves the role, without ending the show.

They are on the 10th lead now and there have been close to 30 seasons, I believe. They brought it back in 2005 after being off the air for several years and they modernized it. But at its heart it is very similar, but I've found it even better. Sort of like the difference between the high camp of the original Battlestar Galactica and the high drama of the new one.

So I have adapted to this new doctor, though I adored the one from the first new season. He was Christopher Eccelstein who is currently reoccuring on the tv show heroes as the invisible guy. But I took quite well to the new one, David Tennant, even though I've only ever seen him in one of the Harry Potter movies and he was playing a bad guy.

Definitely worth the one day shipping.

Anywho, Tobias came home froms school cranky and flushed and warm to the touch and he took a two hour nap (no, he does not do this) so doctor Mom is diagnosing him with Rose's cold. He may stay home tomorrow.

I wrote 6 pages last night, which puts me up to 52, I think. I think I'll work another hour on it tonight.

Today was a no spend day. I had enough pennies to do a roll, so I did that.

I still have not been paid by ReadRevenue one month after cashing out (its supposed to take no more than 72 hours) so I have decided to quit them. They have failed to respond to any of my 5 emails. They were so good in the past about paying, but I can't waste my time on them if they aren't going to pay out anymore.

Oh, wait, it wasn't a no spend day. I wrote a $20 check to fund my son's hot lunch account at school. I forgot.

Made a Few Changes

February 13th, 2007 at 06:53 am

I went into my blog settings and updated my age and changed the color of the header, which I like to do every few months. Change the color that is, not the age, LOL.

My birthday was kind of a non-event, but that's okay. I ordered my present and it should arrive tomorrow. I sprang for the one day shipping. I figured that was my reward for doing nothing about me today.

The kids want a cake, but I'll wait until the day after Valentine's day and get a marked down cake or cupcakes. That's what I usually do if I don't feel like baking.

I drove DH to the airport and he's on his way back to Alaska. He is going to have to start attending an early morning meeting every day. It's 30 minutes of overtime every day for 14 days, so neither one of us is complaining. This is in preparation for the promtion, so it looks like its for real or they would not have him attending these meetings.

I am going to go see the cranial sacral therapy guy tomorrow. I hope this is a step towards wellness.

I wrote four more pages last night, which puts me up to 46 and I am going to write for at least an hour tonight before going to sleep. That goal is really moving right along for me now. I just wish I had more time, but I'll have all school hours on Wednesday and I have a lot figured out now so I may get a couple of good chapters out. Here's hoping.

I guess that is about it for today. Not, too exciting, at the moment.

Paid Bills

February 12th, 2007 at 09:58 pm

Bills paid today:

$700.00 BoA Visa
$ 74.46 MBNA MC (in full)
$ 38.54 Water Delivery
$ 72.10 Cell Phones

Which reminds me that I need to get on the ball again and get those trac phones purchased this month and cancel our Cingular as our contract ended in October.

Yesterday was Game Day

February 12th, 2007 at 06:14 am

Yesterday was Rose's last two games of the season and the girls did a fantastic job. They were tied 14 to 14 with 4 minutes left in the game when the other team broke away and made a run up to 22. Then in the last minute the other team couldn't get their hands back on the ball and our team made it up to 18. If there had been one more minute our girls would have done it. They were so thrilled. This was a team that had beaten them hardily in the past so it was very encouraging.

And their second game they won! 17 to 11 and that game was neck and neck up to the last quarter, then in the last 3 minutes you couldn't stop them and it was amazing. The best game to watch all season as they fought so hard and were well matched for most of it. One of our girls made a beautiful 3 point shot. And Rose made a basket, too. She also got a majorly nasty bruise just below her knee when she took a bad tumble. But she only sat out a couple mintues and wanted back in.

It was so nice to go out on such a high note! Their banquet is next Saturday night and its going to cost about $11 and then they are going swimming at the aquatic center for 1 1/2 hours and that will cost $1.50. Then no more sports stuff until the end of March when Softball and T-ball start up. I am going to have to buy mitts and cleats, I think. But if they had been playing soccer they both would have needed new cleats anyway, they've outgrown the ones from fall.

Yesterday was a no spend day, also.


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