Wild Blue Yonder

Last week I learned i do indeed have Lyme disease. Not too surprising, given all the outdoor work i've been doing. So i'm entering the 2nd of my 3-week antibiotic regimen. The only symptom i have had is pretty much constant headaches that never really go away. Once i started the meds, they went away, but now they're back, so i think this thing is still very much in my system.

I just feel discouraged as i am very much aware of the high risk of Lyme in my area. When doing yardwork, i tuck my pants into my nearly knee-high boots and when i'm doing lots of heavy duty yardwork, i also spray the boots with Deet (Off). I also put my hair back in a pony tail and when i've done for the day, soak in the tub. And still, i got Lyme.

Been here 13 years and this is the first time for Lyme, 2nd time for a tick-borne disease. (I had erlichiosis 2 years ago.)

I never saw a tick on me or the rash....

Today was a quiet Mother's Day. Had my sister and mother over my place for lunch. Pasta shells with celery, green pepper and sun dried tomatoes with olive oil and a little mayo. Sis brought a salad fresh from her garden. I also made DELICIOUS cheddar Bisquick bisquits.

I was going to take my mom over to the farm ice cream stand but it was just a little cool for that.

Didn't get quite as much done this weekend as i normally would, and even today i came in the house around 6 pm, which is so unlike me. Usually i spend every spare minute outdoors, but i just don't feel energetic. Saturday i did a fair amount, a dump run with some rusty old barbed wire i cut from the property line between me and my neighbor. It's been there for year's, my neighbor's, and i just decided to cut up what i could see and bring it to the "Metal" section at the dump. Also brought another pile of sticks and branches with the usual trash.

Filled up the gas tank at about $3.89 and bought $85 worth of Stop N Shop groceries, a lot for me, but i stocked up on Lean Cuisines, which are half price this week and very convenient for my workday lunches. Also got 3 loaves of Pepperidge Farm German dark wheat bread, also 1/3 off.

My sister gave me some pepper, broccoli and lettuce seedlings, so i planted all those after they left this afternoon.

I spotted a woodchuck in my backyard this weekend, which was very upsetting becus i had believed them to be gone this year and they are terribly destructive, more so than deer. They willl decimate an entire garden in an evening. My small 6 x 6 veggie garden is fenced, but with the flimsy netting and posts that i think will deter deer, but i am sure the woodchuck could dig under it. My only hope is that there is so much ELSE to eat in my yard that he won't be particularly attracted to the garden, but i really don't know. I've put so much work and hope into it already. I'm considering digging a trench around the entire garden and laying plastic fencing vertically, then horizontally, so that he cannot dig under. But that's a lot of work.

Did a focus group one night last week. Went there right after work; it made for a long evening, but it was $100 cash so i felt it was worth it.

I have some freelance work to do, meant to do it this weekend but once i got into the document i realized i needed more info from the client, so will have to wait for a response back before i can begin. Doing it on a weekend is vastly more preferable to me than being tired and forced to work on it after my regular job.

Still waiting to get a price from the contractor about enclosing my screened porch with windows. His daughter was graduating from college last week. I should hear this week.

The yard is beauitful. My neighbor complimented me on it. He even shut off his rider mower to walk over and tell me as i worked in the side yard. He's the guy who loos like Norman Rockwell, tall, thin and usually with a pipe in his mouth.

The dogwoods are in bloom. I have about 4 white ones and only 1 pink one left. The azaelas, fuscia and salmon colored, are in bloom while the big white ones in back are about ready to burst open.

In the coming weeks i'll see the rhododendrons and mountain laurel.

Bluebirds still seem to be occupying the next box. If you keep from walking in the front yard and perhaps just sit on the front stoop, you can see the male hang out, first on the lower branch of the birch, then on the metal pole/support for the clematis, and at times on top of the box itself.

the hummingbird has also returned for the season and has already settled into the routine of sugar water visits about every 10 minutes or so. Also saw a rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder, so it's certainly worth it to continue feeding them in the summer. You never know what you'll see. One year, it was a blue indigo bunting, even more spectacular than a bluebird, IMO.

As far as i know, i haven't gotten my IRS refund yet. My sister said the IRS site will indicate what week checks are mailing for certain SS numbers, so i will have to check that out.

The personal challenge i have set myself is to make only ONE car trip per weekend. Yes, I can consolidate errandsd as much as i want, but ONLY ONE trip. So that trip was Saturday, and it was on the way back from grocery shopping that i realized i'd meant to stop at the bait shop for meal worms for the bluebirds, but with frozen Lean Cuisines in the car, i was reluctant to stop, so i didn't.

After unloading the groceries at home, i decided what the heck, let's be adventurous, and i got my unused bike from the basement, filled the tires with air and pedaled down to the bait shop, about a 15 minute pedal each way. Not bad at all and i was feeling very satisfied that i saved the gas. Even surprised that the back tire held, cus there was a patch that looked scraped up and i should really replace it when i can.

Yesterday i was less productive than usual. I started off well, leaving the house by 8:15 am to hit Home Depot to return a clothesline (got a different one), then to Lowes to return a $7 hose nozzle (got a different one for .67) and then to Borders to pick up a DVD for someone i work with who couldn't find this movie near where he lives. Oh, and then dropped about $45 on groceries at Xpect Discounts. I got a box of 7 grain kashi grains for $2.48. When i got home, i realized i already had a box and since this store has price stickers on everything, i saw that the older box cost just $1.98.

I also noticed that at the same store, which is still dirt cheap compared to mainstream supermarkets, the pasta, which i got for ages at .69 a pound, is now selling for .99 a pound.

Prego pasta sauce is still a bargain there for $1.50 a jar.

Yesterday i made a 3 bean salad with canned beans (yellow, green, kidney and chickpeas), plus a chopped up fresh red pepper, plus some vinegar and sugar. Pretty good.

Mostly eating non-meat meals these days. Can't imagine what my food bill would be if i were buying red meat.

I had a hankering for peanut butter yesterday as well, so i made a peanut butter/sesame oil sauce over rice noodles. Umm, think i need to thin out the peanut butter more with water or something, cus it didn't spread as well as i'd like on hot pasta and it was quite filling. In fact, i skipped dinner after having that at around 3 pm The rice noodles became sort of a congealed glob after cooling so i hope i can still eat the leftovers.

I'm frustrated by 3 or 4 projects around here that aren't seeing much progress. One is a broken toilet. The water leaking noise seemed to be caused by the rubber flapper that fits over the drain; the old flapper rubber was basically disintegrating, so i thought for sure that was it. The 1st new flapper i got did not appear to stop the leaking noise so i got another one which requires you to completely drain and dry the tank so you can put an adhesive seal on the drain opening before putting on the new flapper cover, but when i was sopping up the last of the water, i could see water movement around the base of the other toilet valve where the water comes in. The water kept slowly seeping back in so i couldn't install the flapper. Maybe i need to replace that other part as well. I'm wondering if this has reached the point of being beyond my comprehension but i hate the thought of having to spend $100+ for a plumber and what will surely be a 10-minute fix.

Last night NASCAR racing had ursurped Cops on TV, so i spent a few hours of my saturday night stripping wallpaper in the bathroom.

I had a contractor over here last week to price a big job, though i have a fair amount of hesitation about proceeding with it. I wanted to know how much it'd cost to enclose my screened porch, which i enjoy so much. By replacing the floor to ceiling screen with a low (2 foot) wall and the rest of it vinyl windows with screens, i could likely extend the time i spend out there, instead of May through September, probably April through October.

So the cost would be putting in 4 very large vinyl windows, the kind you slide open from side to side, plus a 5th window on another wall that looks into my bathroom. It's the only non double-pane window left in the house, the original window from 1930; i'd like to replace it with a double hung with frosted glass so if someone's in the bathroom, you have privacy but without giving up the light that comes in from the porch.

It's a project i could afford to do, but i guess with the general state of the economy, i feel generally uncertain and anxious about expenses. Maybe partly becus it's just my single income. I've always operated on a pay as you go basis. In other words, i never borrow money, just defer a purchase until i save up for it. (I would just take the $ out of savings.) The downside of that, of course, is you may not get to enjoy something you've wanted. I figure if i stay in this house another 5 years, which i think there's a good chance will happen, it would be nice to enclose the porch now so i could enjoy it for that time, and of course, get some of that $$ back if and when i sold the house.

I don't plan to put heat in the porch, though once it's enclosed it would be easy to do and call it a sunroom. But to do that i'd probably have to let the town know i'm doing that, and then i'd pay higher taxes, so i'm happy to just enclose the porch. I havent' gotten an estimate from the guy yet.

My other concern about doing this job is that right now, when you're on the porch, you really feel like you're outside, probably becus the screen goes floor to ceiling. If i enclose it, i don't want it to feel like a room and i don't want to lose that outdoor feeling.

My friend and neighbor H. has a sunroom that this same builder did, so i'm going over there in a little while to really closely examine his workmanship. I've been in the room before; it's perfectly nice, but it does feel like a room, so i want to check the size of her windows for comparison.

I've been a little upset with my PCP. I had a physical a week ago and i suggested that maybe since they were taking my blood they should check for Lyme Disease, since i've been doing a ton of yardwordk, Lyme is rampant in my state and i'd been having nearly daily headaches. He agreed i should. He said he wouldn't call me prior to my followup appt. unless i tested positive, as of course we wouldn't want to delay treatment. So Friday when i got home from work at 6:15 pm, there was a message from the doctor at 6 pm saying i'm calling about your bloodwork results. Call the office on Monday.

I'm assuming my test results were positive. So why the heck didn't he give me a way to connect with him so i could get a prescription? I could have gotten started 2 days earlier, and apparently becus he didn't want to be bothered on a weekend, he didn't think it important enough. That's really something. I'll need to confirm that's the case, but if it is, i'm just about ready to stop seeing this guy after about 15 years. He's inconvenient anyway, with no weeknight or weekend hours and ALWAYS a 30 to 40-minute wait when you arrive. I'm really upset about the Lyme though. It seems irresponsible to me for a physician to let that go.

Well, i've been jabbering about all my yardwork (and lovin' it, too), so i snapped a few pix this a.m. Keep in mind it's an overcast day with rain on the way.


This is the "North Slope."

This is one of the beds in the front yard; those reddish things shooting up are some peonies that do very well here. The deer don't bother them and i get some spectacular magenta blooms. You can also see a copper birdbath, which is solar-powered, by the way and features a small fountain when it's sunny out. There's also a small pagoda i recently got.


This is the new veggie garden i put in, in the FRONT yard cus that's where all the sun is. It doesn't matter at all as my front yard is just as private as the back, so no one will see it anyway. It's small, about 5 x 7, and i just planted 2 tomato plants, cucumbers, stringbeans, snap peas and zucchini. My hose BARELY reaches the spot, as it's about 75 feet from the house. I hope that lightweight deer fencing will hold. If a deer rammed it, they could easily knock it down. The right side is a little temporary until i figure out what to do with it. I need one end that i can easily open and close so i can get in there for weeding, etc.

Note the wheelbarrow; that's the new (used) one I got from the guy i gave my locust wood to. It's very sturdy. In the background you'll see a large burning bush. I mean, it's huge. Turns red in fall. I want to cut the right side of it way back becus it's blocking the view of 2 very nice evergreens that have finally reached an impressive size. Problem is, i won't be able to prune the top of the burning bush, even on a ladder.


Nothing much to see here, just the massive stump of the black locust. The bluebird box is inhabited, but i'm not sure how permanent it is. Between my frequent presence working in the yard after work and on weekends, plus the neighbor's cat who comes running for a rubdown when it sees me and some crows that might be nesting in a huge white pine nearby, i'mnot positive those bluebirds are staying. They'd defintiely like to, but i'm just not sure how tolerant they are of activity so close to the nest.


This is in area in the back that i planted with rescued lungwort. I say "rescued" becus it had it's back to my asphalt driveway with pachysandra closing in. The rock sculpture is what i call a cairn, which they may use to mark hiking trails, but i like it as a garden accent that costs nothing to construct.



This is a dormant clematis coming to life. Now if i had "cleaned up" the garden too much and pulled down those dead-looking vines, I wouldn't have the spectacular mass of blooms later in the spring. All those vines are very much alive.


Lest you think i have nothing left to do, behold, the Picket Fence Garden. For some reason, this always ends up last on my list. Maybe becus i can't decide what to do with it. It's a pretty large enlcosed area. I raided it for plants when i thought i was moving to T.'s, but there's still lots of good stuff in here: 3 dwarf cherry trees, a willow, about 5 blueberry bushes, wild strawberries that are migrating to my brick patio, a gooseberry that's also expanding its turf, a bleeding heart, a few hostas, salomon's seal, jacob ladder, day lily and who knows what else.

It's just a mess in there. Prickly brambles keep popping up there and i yanked out what i saw (with gloves) a few weeks ago cus they'll RAPIDLY take over. The weeds just always take over if i tidy up in there and i can't seem to keep up with it with all my other yard duties.

So let's see, this weekend i was on my usual frenzied schedule to accomplish AS Much As Possible.

I took an early a.m (8 a.m.) trip to Lowes to see if they had a longer reetractable clothesline than th 20-footer i got from Home Depot. They didn't, so i just bought a 100-foot clothesline rope. I'm afraid the rope will stretch too much when i hang clothes, but we'll see. I also picked up some plastic fencing there and a nozzle for my hose, which i plan to return for the $7 it cost when i found a plastic but perfectly workable hose nozze at Xpect Discounts for .69!

I transplanted the rest of my seedlings arrived in the mail. Two hardy fuscia, one of which is dead (will call Spring Hill about that), the remaining blackhaw viburnum and 2 corkscrew willow.

Then loaded up just a little bit of trash and a whole lot of broken up tree branches and sticks, crammed all in my trunk and back seat, and away we went to the transfer station to unload.

Went to get a prescription filled and ended up spendign $22 on a long-sleeved t-shirt that says my town's name on it. (I'm very patriotic about my town.)

Rest of the day i continued yardwork, planting what i mentioned in the veggie garden, which is really an attempt to get fresh, organic produce and fight rising grocery costs.

I was very surprised last night to get a phone call from the manager of my local Stop N Shop. I had emailed Stop N Shop corporate complalining that they had a very limited selection of organic produce and they passed my message on to the local store. He acknolwedged they have serious supply problems and basically chalked it up to there not being enough large-scale organic growers who could supply a 500-store chain. I had suggested local growers (my sister, for instance) but i think the paperwork involved in doing that would be too involved to keep track of numerous small scale farmers, all of whom would only supply a part of the total offerings at the store.

As long as the woodchuck stays away, i have a chance to actually harvest something. Altho i've had even cute chipmunks gnaw on tomatos, so i'm not positive.

Had a physical on Thursday. We agreed that since they were taking blood anyway, they should test me for Lyme disease, too. I've been having somewhat continuous, low grade headaches which sometimes continue into the next day. Lyme disease in my state is an epidemic.

My friend and neighbor H. called to ask me a favor, to bring a repotted snake plant back into the house. Not a biggie.
She knows I'm Ms. Muscle Lady.

Vacuumed the upstairs here; it really needed it. Was thinking i might be able to squeeze in some lawn mowing, the 1st of the season, if the grass is dry. It sprinkled a little last night.

The forecast for Friday looked so good, i couldn't resist. I took that day off from work, the 2nd day off in my 3 months at the new job. I only get a stingy 2 weeks and 2 personal days, but it was soooooo worth it. This weekend was picture-perfect weather.

Friday's project: do something about the many branches, either dropped during storms or pruned, accumulating in growing piles along the perimeters of the my property. I always figured, well, they'll decompose eventually. Surprise! They don't! Not in 13 years! And the place was looking more and more like an impenetrable jungle and tick haven.

So i began dragging out the larger tree branches and cutting them into manageable 3 foot lengths with my bow saw and loppers. I put a giant tarp in the trunk of my car and crammed as much brush in there as i could, then made 1 trip to the transfer station.

Went back home and continued in this mindless, but satisfying vein until i had built up 3 more pilies of 3 foot long tree branches. I'll plan to bring a load with me each week when i make a trip to the transfer station.

Yesterday a.m. at 7:30 a.m., a guy and his brother came over to take the rest of my cut up black locust as firewood. I had posted an ad on Craig's List saying i wanted to barter for a wheelbarrow in good condition.

He wrote back saying he didn't have a wheelbarrow but would be happy to buy me a new one. COOL. In a later email, he said he'd gotten my wheelbarrow. Then when he showed up, he said he didn't have it but would have to wait til the hardware store opened. I became instantly suspicious, thinking he was going to try to just take the wood and not come back. Besides, he had told me in the email he had already gotten one for me. Oh, it had a bad tire, he said, and i want to get you a new tire. Hmm, i thought. He said he was buying a new one so how could the tire be an issue? As a precaution, i took down the license plate of his truck as he was loading it. They made 3 trips here to load up wood, so i think he got a good deal. Anyway, they left me a wheelbarrow. It wasn't new, as it turned out, but it's perfectly fine, and what i'd asked for in the 1st place so i'm happy.

Old BF T. called to ask me if i still needed the dead apple tree cut down. (He wants the wood.) I said yes, so maybe he'll be up next weekend. At least with smaller trees, it doesnt' seem too hard to get the work done becus everyone's interested in firewood these days with the cost of heating oil. Maybe next time i can barter some wood for a pair of wire cutters. My neighbors still have old barbed wire running along a stone wall separating our property, and i don't like it there. An animal could get snagged on it; it's really a hazard.

A little later yesterday, friend M. came by and we did a 5-mile hike nearby. It took me several hours to recuperate from that, but i managed to rally and by 4:30 p.m. i was out in the yard again, this time mulching my giant rhodie and sweeping the debris left over from the wood in the driveway, etc.

Today's mission is to get out of here in just a little while (it's only 7:15 am) and run a few errands, mainly getting a crateload of annuals for all my pots and to get a retractable clothesline from Home Depot. The one i've had for about 5 years now ripped off the house under the weight of 2 wet quilts. I love that clothesline.

I am going to plant a vegetable garden. It was like an epiphany. I have 1/5 acres and in 13 years have never had a decent veggie garden beyond a few potted tomato plants!!! Why, you ask? Mainly becus of resident woodchucks, who are just as bad if not worse than deery, IMO. But after a large evergreen on the north side came down in a storm and a drainage pipe was put in that area, the secret woodchuck den was uncovered (with a front door and a back door) and the whole area, which was hidden by brush, etc., is now fairly exposed. So i don't think he or his ancestors who living there.

that means that perhaps a fenced garden could thrive here. And do you know where i'm going to put it? Smack dab in the middle of my sunny, sunny front yard.

In the past i'd tried veggie gardening in my picket fence garden, which is already protected, but i'm a little leery of continuing to do that because it's very close to the house, about 10 feet away, and i'm worried about paint chips that may have settled in the ground there. If i'm going to go organic, and that is a large reason for my own garden, that and the rising cost of fresh produce, i should make an effort to keep it healthy. So the front yard it shall be. The front gets a ton of sun and it's a good 30 feet from the house, so no paint chips.

It'll be narrow and rectanngular so i can easily walk around for weeeding purposes. And that way, too, if i want to continue to elongate the garden over time, i can do so. Nothing too crazy...snap peas, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, stringbeans. the hardest part will be digging up all that sod. Better get going.

Yesterday, we were supposed to visit some Japanese gardens but cancelled our plans due to expected rain. Of course, the day was bright and sunny. Today, I planned to do yardwork, and it was rainy and chilly. Go figure.

When i invited H. to the asian gardens, she was very interested. The only weekend day they're open is Saturday, so that's when we'd need to plan our visit. Since H. spends most every Saturday shopping with her friend N., I wasn't too surprised when she asked me if it was ok if she invited N. to join us. I told her it was fine, though privately my enthusiasm for the outing just went down a notch. I met N. once before and she's nice enough, but i sensed it would change the caliber of the trip, actually requiring me to be social and "Chatty Kathy" when i'm not that way at all. The thought of just going to these gardens by myself was looking more and more interesting. I really just want to wander the grounds and take in the design with my camera and bring home some ideas for my own gardens.

N. is a big shopper; she's married and i guess has money to burn. but my friend H. is living on Social Security in a house that's falling apart. I really can't speak for N., and i hate to say this about H., but she's the kind of person who doesn't really have many hobbies. the only thing she does with her time is, you guessed it, shop, drive around wasting gas, and that's it, unless i get her to walk with me, which is happening less and less. She really shouldn't be shopping at all, becus you know how exposing yourself to nice things makes you end up buying something. I'm not a big social person and sometimes spending more than an hour or so with certain kinds of people, usually the ones that talk a lot and require a running dialogue, simply WEAR ME OUT.

But with the weather forecast we all agreed not to go yesterday. Instead, i went to get my oil changed and snow tires off at the car dealer. I was miffed to have to sit there 2 hours just for that, while it was 70 degrees outside. I was a woman with things to do! I wandered the lot looking at all the shiny new Hondas and came away with the general impression that Honda, which has always been known for reliability and fuel economy, was slipping in the latter department. I know they revised the mileage ratings a year or so ago, but still, only 26 mpg?

Yesterday's mission was to dispose of some large hemlock branches that sat for the past year where they fell, north of the house. I took care of the branches, then decided to pull out (with gloves) all the bramble that was taking root there and getting in my blueberry patch. The stuff has very long root systems. I didn't want animals to step on the sharp prickers, remembering that the neighbor's neglected cat had a slight limp. i decided to cut up the bramble branches with a pair of clippers into 5 or 6" pieces so i could fit them neatly into plastic bags for disposal at the transfer station.

That little chore took me 3 hours, and by the end of it i was so sore, just from standing, bending, standing, bending. So i've got 2 bags of the stuff for the dump, along with a small pile of 3 foot wide branches and a tarp full of just brush. It's stuff that's accumulated for 13 years, and it's high time it gets cleaned out. At one time i figured it would all eventually decompose, but that process is a very slow one, and in the meantime i've created quite the haven for ticks. So getting rid of brush from the perimeters of the yard is on the To Do list this year.

Last night I watched "Talk to Her," a foreign film via Netflix. Very good, very different, with some sad and one hilarous part, too.

This a.m. i went to the giant flea market about 20 minutes from here, gassing up the car at the cheap station on the way. Damn. Within the first 5 minutes there i found myself reaching into my pocket for $12 for a framed piece of marquetry, which i have a soft spot for since my grandfather was a marquetry master. This piece looked like a view of some Swiss alpine village. The frame was garbage, and when i got it home i realized there was no way to separate the frame from the art which i wanted to reframe. Well, i guess i could take a hammer to it and carefully try to separate the 2. I also spent $10 on a "berry bucket," a small wood bucket with iron handle and painted a distressed green. That and the $2 for admission made the grand total to $24. Damn again. I suppose i shouldn't be pointing fingers at H. when i'm doing the same thing.

I arrived home to a chilly house (59 degrees) as i only have an eighth of an oil tank left and hope to save it for any future chilly nights. I don't want to refill til late summer as i'm counting on cheaper rates then, though who knows, really.

For lunch i made curried quinoa with chickpeas, shredded carrot, garlic, scallion, raisins and toasted pinenuts. then i dozed off for maybe a half hour. Oh, sweet luxury.

I also ordered some new wallpaper for the downstairs bathroom. It was difficult deciding on just one pattern, but i settled on a distressed marble look in the tan family. The color scheme in this bathroom has been blue and white, but this particular blue is not one i like, sort of like a royal blue. So with the new wallpaper, which will match the yellowish tones in the vanity sink (i think), i will repaint the cabinet and woodwork/trim.

I cancelled my subscription to the NYT, saving myself, afte rthe low intro rate had expired. $11 a month. Any time i can eliminate a recurring expense is a very satisfying experience. I will miss curling up in bed with the Sunday Times, but that was something of a fantasy, cus i rarely had time to read it all at once. I ended up force-reading it in bits and pieces, feeling "pressured" to do so since i'd paid for it. Now with the warmer weather is the time to eliminate it. I noticed that while i can access my account online, they won't let you cancel online. That's becus they want a phone rep to try to talk you out of cancelling, and that's exactly what he did. He suggested i just do a 4-month vacation hold, which i actually was tempted to do, but dollars and sense reigned and i stuck to my guns.

Netflix, on the other hand, i have no plans to cancel. I wish they had a plan that offered more than 2 movies a month but NOT "unlimited" numbers, as that, again, would make poor neurotic me feel "pressured" to watch them and return them as quickly as possible to "get my $'s worth." Anyone out there know what, for them, is the maximum number of movies you can watch in one month if you watch and return them as soon as you get them? I'd be curious. I'm guessing about 4 or 5.

Now i'm debating in my head whether i should try to do more yardwork or if i should bake something with sour cream and canned pineapple, 2 items i want to use up.

Mom called to tell me about her troubles separating an avocado pit from the avocado. And to offer me some salad dressing from Costco that she liked, but i am wedded to Paul Newman's balsamic vinegar for life.

I really felt like i could use a mental health day after "nose to the grindstone" for the past 3 months, so on a whim, i asked yesterday to take today off, knowing the weather was going to be great.

Here's what I did:
* did a dump run
* grocery shopping
* picked up birdseed on sale at Agway
* LOTS of yardwork (raking, sweeping, rolling the LAST of the cut up locust tree off my lawn and into the driveway)
* Mom came over for a brief visit
* 2 loads of laundry and hung them out to dry
* posted a craigs list posting looking to barter my firewood for a wheelbarrow
* enjoyed the screened porch with kitty
* cancelled my NYT subscription; it's great in winter, but i have no time to read it anymore....this always happens...
* put screen inserts in 2 doors and a window
* vacuumed out my car and wiped down the inside

Thirteen years ago i got a Rubbermaid wheelbarrow from Home Depot. It's served me well all these past years. Two years ago, my boyfriend broke off one of the wood handles on it. And apparently Home Depot no longer stocks replacement handles. But i found i could still use the wheelbarrow. Then, a few weeks ago, the 2nd handle broke off too! It was a case of one too many times being left out in the rain.

I've got a ton of yardwork and am still using it by simply grasping onto the rim of the bin, but it's doing a real number on my back.

This a.m. i posted on freecycle for another wheelbarrow. I've mostly given things away there so i don't expect success in finding someone who has one and doesn't need it, but am willing to give it a shot.

The other problem is that i'm not sure getting another one, used or new, will fit in my trunk. But i'm not very good at putting things together myself. Usually i end up with a wobbely bookcase or a wobbely anything. Sigh. I REALLY need a new wheelbarrow.

Yesterday, the weatherman got it all wrong. It was a beautiful sunny day. So i got a lot done in the yard. Most of the black locust wood is in the driveway, and my sister made a 2nd trip to load up her pickup. The sawdust and mess is all raked up now and i already started filling up said wheelbarrow with mulch (I have a Mt. Everest of mulch sitting by the driveway with remains of the pine; the pile is about 7 feet high!) and carting it around to mulch various perennial beds in the front. This all takes a ton of time. Shoveling mulch in, then shoveling it out, and edging the bedds neatly first with a hoe before that.

I opened up the screened porch for the season, first washing down the floor, which gets all sorts of grit and grime from the winter, then moving in my bamboo rug and assorted furniture and windchimes. The cat loved it after a season of breezeless air. We sat out there for a few hours in the afternoon sun. I filled up the hummer feeder too, for early arrivals.

I re-erected my bluebird box, hoping that this year, bluebirds will indeed take up residence. Usually, it's wrens in there, but i moved the box away from the brushy perimeter of the yard more to the center of the lawn, a relocation bluebirds would approve of.

Let's see, i also built a cairn with some fieldstone i have but need to relocate it to its final resting position. It's a decorative feature that i'll put near or in my perennial beds.

A small Japanese pagoda arrived in the mail, and that, too, will go somewhere in the garden.

I was patting myself on the back for having gotten thru this winter heating season with just 2 oil fill-ups. I checked just now to see what exactly that cost me, and I believe the 2 fillups cost me $816, which seems like a lot, not a little. Comparisons, anyone? My space is 1650 sf.

Everything is still pretty mucy dormant here, so i have yet to learn whether the bulk of what i transplanted to get out of the way of the chainsaws here a few weeks ago survived my shovel & transplant work or not.

Aside from a group of 4 deer, i don't see much wildlife here as most of it is nocturnal. (I did see a few turkeys a week ago.) But i was delighted yesterday a.m. to see a very white opossum looping thru the backyard, and that made me wonder if that was the critter enjoying all my handouts. I assumed it was the deer relishing the leftover table scraps and cat food which i put out many evenings and which vanishes by a.m.

Last night's offering also was gone this a.m., but i caught a cardinal picking at the remains, no doubt the squash seeds that went in there, along with some stale cheesecake. I'm wondering if this could possibly be an albino opposum or if they start out with white hair when they're born. I suspect it's the latter. Most possums i've seen have gray hair. They're really pretty special animals as they're in the marsupial family. Like kangaroos, they carry their young in a pouch.

Well, yesterday's errands got postponed when the weather turned sunny, so i'll be running out to do those shortly. Groceries, Walgreens, filling up the gas tank for the week ahead at the cheap place.... I was planning on going to the flea market too, but it's a bit of a marginal weather day today, and since the flea market is now on thru october, i might as well wait for a nicer day to do it.

Oh happy joy.

The electrician showed up yesterday, an hour late. He called Thursday night to give me an estimate, so Friday when i got home from work i was planning to remove the wallpaper, which needs to be replaced anyway, at least from the back wall where the light fixture will go. Unfortunately, i could not find my scraper, and the local hardware store was closed, and Home Depot was too far to go at that hour (7 pm) So i used my scouring tool, then a damp sponge, and proceeded to remove said wallaper with my fingernails.

Here's what it looks like.



A large rectangular mirror goes below the fixture; the electrician spackled 2 holes in that space, so i had to let that dry overnight, and he's coming back today to help me put the mirror back up and to get paid.

When he drilled the hole where the mirror goes, we could see that there was another wall behind it with a space of about 4 inches between the 2. The original exterior wall had some old wallpaper on it.

I've known that a lot of the wiring in this house was done by an amateur electrician, and in fact over the years as i've had work done i've discovered that nothing is grounded. So the electrician fixed that for this fixture.

After the electrician left, I ran out to do errands, first the bakery to pick my sister up a birthday cheesecake, then to fill up my gas tank at the cheapest station in my area ($3.29 vs. $3.36 in my town), then on to Stop N Shop for a few sale items, then to Xpect Discounts, where i went on a $75 spending binge. A few food items, suet for the birds, a tarp i needed for yardwork ($3.30 vs $15 at Target, a great find) and 4 large resin pots, 2 were $9 each and 2 urns were $16 each. Maybe a little more than i'd want to spend, but i guess i have spring fever and an really looking forward to a summer of tending my gardens. One of the pots i really like cus it has an Asian look to it with bamboo on it.



And these urns are great.



Last night, my friend R. came by for a visit. He's the one, you might remember, who is going thru his 2nd divorce, from the same woman.

Our plan was to visit my sister as her birthday was earlier this week, but she said she had plans to see her boyfriend and R. told me he didn't like cheesecake (!) so now i have a very rich, $13 cheesecake for myself. I had a slice last night, and maybe will bring it in to the office tomorrow as it probably won't last that long....sigh.

So since visiting my sister was out, R. and i went to a cute local coffeehouse and they had live entertainment, 2 guiatarists. I think we were the only ones in the place who weren't somehow related to them.

I'm devoting today to yardwork, as it'll be in the mid to high 40s. I want to try to finish rolling pieces of the cut-up locust tree to the driveway,to get them off the lawn.

I want to trim all the dead sedum stalks, the ornamental grass and also the massive burning bush in the front yard. I'd love to do it with my electric trimmer, but i know my 100 foot extension cord won't be long enough to reach it.

Its foliage spread is about 20 feet wide and 15 feet high. It's got a nice mounded shape to it, but the other day while hauling locust pieces i noticed how lovely the 2 evergreens behind the burning bush had become. They're quite nice and now reach about 12 feet high, but they're obscured by the burning bush, so i want to prune one side of it so i can enjoy those evergreens from the front door.

My employer gives me free access to check my credit report and score; when i checked Friday, all 3 were between 750 and 800. The highest, i think, was 778.

That's the sound of the mighty black locust falling to the ground in big chunks. It wasn't as bad as I thought. They worked very quickly. 5 minutes after i walked back into the house, the single trunk evergreen was down. That one they didn't use the cherry picker on becus my neighbors' wires were too close, so they cut it at the base and pulled it down with ropes.

With the locust, they completely forgot that I'd asked them to cut the wood in 16 foot lengths for my sister's boyfriend, who has a sawmill. Oh well. The cat didn't seem overly bothered by the noise. They left somewhat of a mess on the lawn with all the small branches and sawdust, and while they had a leaf blower, they didn't really use it. (If i use this guy again, i will make a point about that.)





Yesterday, i began rolling or wheelbarrowing the smaller pieces to the driveway, but here's some of it on the lawn. Why move it? I don't have to, S. is bringing a backhoe to lift and move it all, though if i thought i could move all the pieces (I can't) i would. I'm very protective of my yard and garden, what can i say. Luckily, i have a good back.

After writing out a check for $1400, i bagged the trip to Agway for birdseed, suddenly feeling poor. I did go to TJ Maxx, but luckily, didn't find anything there i liked.

At stop n shop i bought some shrimp for a stir fry dinner last night. I asked the guy behind the counter for a half pound of the shrimp. He repeated that number to me when he weighed it and i bought it. But something was irking me, how could it have come to $5 and change when a full lb was going for $6.99. Something wasn't right, and when i looked at the price on the shrimp, i saw that he charged me the higher price someone without a stop and shop card would pay.

It was a difference of just a little over a dollar, hardly worth the cost of gas to travel 3 miles back to the store to get a refund. If stop and shop is open today, i plan to do that at another stop n shop on the way to my mother's for Easter. But what bothers me is the larger picture here. For 13 years, i've been traveling those extra 3 miles to shop there rather than the Big Y which is just around the corner from me. But i'd say on an average of 1 out of every 3 shopping trips, a mistake is made...human error, by the cashier. (Never in my favor.) If you don't examine your receipt like a hawk, you're paying even more than you already are. With the cost of nearly every food item going up, i can't afford to pay even an extra $1 i don't need to. So i'm going to write a letter to Stop n Shop corporate HQ today, on Easter Sunday.

So anyway, back to my tree. I spent 2.5 hours lifting pieces of wood, putting it in my wheelbarrow, which at most can carry 3 pieces at one time, then trudging 30 feet to my driveway, where i dumped it for easy loading by sis' friend. A good workout, to be sure, and i hope to do a bit more either before or after Easter dinner at mom's, which actually is early this afternoon.

An old friend of mine is making a surprise visit to see my sis and mom. OK, an old boyfriend from 15 years ago. We still keep in touch, usually just once or twice a year, strictly platonic.

Did I tell you of the case of the exploding pot? I bought 2 pots at a local nursery here as i wanted to have some houseplants at the office, but there's no direct light, so i shopped for some shade-loving plants, one of them being a pothos. Anyway, i bought 2 pots made out of bamboo in pretty colors. They were attractive, and renewable. The leaflet said they would "deteriorate" in 2 to 3 years, but i still liked the idea.

I bought the pots and plants last Sunday, and potted up the plants that night. Brought them into work on Monday. Tuesday a.m. i discovered at work that the pot had literally exploded. It was all cracked and dirt was falling out. I don't think anyone, like the cleaning crew, had dropped it and then put it back together again. I had heard strange cracking noises the day before, actually. I don't know if, in the process of absorbing the 1/2 cup of water i poured in there did something, but the bamboo seemed very brittle.

Far too many times when something i buy doesn't work out, i don't bother to do anything about it and write it off. I really don't feel i want to do that anymore, even for small purchases. So i called the nursery and spoke to the owner's wife, who was very nice about it. I told her i knew it looked like i had dropped it, but that i hadn't, and that i'd like a refund. In response to my question, she said that no one else had complained of bamboo-exploding pots. She was very nice about it and agreed to a return, tho now i can't find the receipt, and i had planned on returning it yesterday, but got caught up in my yardwork. So now will likely have to wait another week as they close before i get home from work.

I hope to get my mom to cut my hair when i go over later today. Maybe someday i'll have the nerve to try to cut it myself.

Tomorrow i'll be making myself scarce for a good part of the day as the tree guys will finally be coming to take down 2 trees. My neighbors will hate me, i'm sure, after being subjected to ear-splitting chainsaw racket.

So i'll be headed to TJ Maxx, a store i rarely or never shopped at for years, even though there's one right here in town. But i discovered that i really could find decent clothes there, and they seem to be cheaper than Macy's or Kohl's. (Am I right, ladies?)

So anyway, i'll do TJ Maxx, probably some grocery shopping, maybe Agway for some bird seed. This is all assuming little kitty will not freak out with the noise. If she does, i may have to put her in the basement. It's hard to gauge now just how loud it'll be, so i'll stay home for a bit to see but will park my car in the street so they don't block me in.

An electrician is also coming in the a.m. to give me a price on the bathroom fixture. He'll likely be high-priced as he lives here in town. Whaddya gonna do? I give up. Just install the dang thing already. No one wants to come out on a Saturday anymore and i guess they all assume people are wealthy enough not to have to work or something.

I have a really funny story to tell you. Embarrassing, really. And maybe not one for the guys to read...

For at least the past 3 years now, i've been experiencing shortness of breath. Like i just can't get enough air in my lungs. Lately, like since starting my new job, it's been more of a problem and i was holding off seeing a doctor about it until my scheduled physical next month. Actually, i remember telling the doc about this 3 years ago, but the chest x-ray came back normal and he chalked it up to "stress."

Of course my fear was lung cancer, altho i'm a little young for that. And i wondered if i am a shallow breather, perhaps due to life's anxieties, it seems that i am.

Then i started thinking about an Oprah show not too long ago where she said that half the women in America don't wear the right bra size. I remeasured myself and started thinking i was one of those women. Come to think of it, and this revelation AMAZED me, I had been wearing the SAME bra size all my life, since i was in my teens! Now i'm in decent shape and maybe just 15 or 20 lbs. heavier than high school, but still, I'm 30 years older and the body has a way of reapportioning itself and, more importantly, my rib cage has undoubtedly widened.

So a week ago i went to Macy's and got bras that were both a cup size and band size bigger and BINGO. I havent' had shortness of breath since!!!!!

(By the way, do you know the average Macy's bra costs a ridiculous $32??? I found a rack where they were all priced at $12.99 and then hunted on my hands and kneese for my size.)

What i was effectively accomplishing by wearing the tight bras was what the Victorian ladies did when they cinched up those bustiers tight, tight, tight. No wonder they were always having fainting spells! Geez Louise!

So i'm happy to report i do not have lung disease. Just too tight titties. Phew. What a relief.

1. Bake some cranberry/sour cream muffins. (S&S snagged me by getting me to buy 2 containers of sour cream for $5.) Not sure that was a deal, but i wanted some for a beef stew i made, and now i have a bunch left, so muffins it will be.

2. Indulge myself with a little trip to the local garden center, which has a great selection of houseplants. It's a great trip to make in the dead of winter. Their greenhouse is always humid and warm and alive with all sorts of things. I want a small shade houseplant to bring to my office. I'm too far from the windows to enjoy any direct light, but there's plenty of flourescent light....

3. Read the paper. Watch my Netflix movie, LA Confidential.

I am ooh, so achey still from yesterday's yardwork. My shoulders, the backs of my legs and even my feet, wrists and arms. Amazing. Yes, Baselle, i'll be careful, but i follow the adage "use it or lose it." Maybe my age is catching up with me. I never really stop to think that maybe i can't do quite as much, or at least as much without consequences, that i used to do even 10 years ago. I'm not in bad shape, but like most people sitting 5 days a week in front of a computer does not tone muscle.

The Golden Compass wasn't that good. I guess if you were under 15 you'd like it. I figured with talent like Nicole Kidman, Kathy Lee Bates and Kristin Scott Thomas (don't know who she played), it would be pretty good. It was a fantasy adventure but it just didn't emotionally engage me.

I had to turn down two more requests for my freelance services. Kills me to do it cus i like to maintain those ties, but just aint worth bustin my butt paying 36% taxes when i'm normally in the 25% tax bracket for an extra few thousand dollars. Not when my free time is so valuable. I tend to overdo it (guess you can tell from my yardwork overkill) and don't set aside enough time for R&R.

Been thinking what to do with my vacation this year. When i'm not dating anyone, i usually end up not doing anything special and just using vacation time catching up at home or maybe visiting my dad and K. in NJ. Free time is always enjoyable, but i love getting away to someplace. Still, i worry about my cat being alone. But a night or two away, maybe to some place in the Berkshires, would be doable. I want to research whether there are any interesting spa/retreat type places that emphasize healthy food and exercise/outdoor activities.

I know my friend H. would be game, but she's not athletic and is more into yoga, which is a bit of a snooze for me. She was out of breath after walking just a short ways from the car to the movie theater last night. She has been obese the entire time I've known her and now she has type 2 diabetes, a direct result of her weight. That kind of weight problem has serious health consequences and will shorten your life, but still, she hasn't tried to lose weight that i'm aware of. Four or five years ago, i remember she actually finished at least one or two fairly long walks with me around town, an hour or so. She had some trouble doing it, but she did. Now there's no way she could do even a quarter of that.

I've tried, over the years, to get her exercising more, and she'll sometimes walk with me (very leisurely pace, level ground) but she lacks the discipline to do it on her own. She has joint problems with her hips and knees, and taking some of that weight off could only help. Still, i sense it's not a big priority for her. She just keeps going to the chiropractor.

I would be very interested in a SA get-together. I know some would prefer to save their anonymity, but wouldn't it be something completely novel and different to meet people you've been "talking" to for years but have never, ever met? It would be one of those experiences you would remember for years to come, i would think. Ima, why don't you organize something??

That locust tree i'm having cut down next weekend....i got around to measuring the depth of the cavity that's about 4 feet up from the ground, in the center of the trunk. It goes down a good 2 feet, so i guess i'm making the right decision to have it taken down. I've spent a fair amount of time feeling anxious about the whole thing, mostly worrying about the damage the tree company will do to other landscaping and my lawn and the noise and mess he'll create. But I think it's prudent, seeing as how i'll probably end up staying here in this house another 5 years, or at least as long as i'm working at the current job.

You may have noticed I upped my retirement savings goal by $300,000. I've heard it said in several different places that a husband/wife couple should count on an extra $200,000 for out of pocket medical expenses between age 65 and the end of the road. It DOESNT include long-term care insurance. It assumes you're covered by Medicare, but Medicare, is no free lunch. I haven't really paid much attention to it since it's not affecting me now. But i figured with my pre-existing condition, even tho i'm not part of a couple, i should set aside $300K for healthcare, so that's where that figure comes from.

On Friday i retook the Retirement Calculator thingy on cnn.money.com, punching in my current savings, savings rate and when i want to retire. Turns out, IF i can keep up my current savings rate ($12K into the 401k once i become eligible to join in a few months, plus another 8% in taxable savings for a total annual savings each year of 23% of income, kind of steep) i will have saved $1,295,000 by age 60, jut $5K short of my goal. Funny how closely that worked out.

I've done some other surveys, but recently got a survey from Buzzback. Before i open their link, can anyone tell me if they're legit? I think they are, but just want to make sure....

I am so achey tired...in a good way. Just spent a good part of the afternoon (it's in the high 40s here) doing yardwork. I must be really out of shape. The tree guy, who was supposed to take down 2 huge trees yesterday, is now rescheduled to come next Saturday.

There was a bit of a snag. The secretary asked me to leave a check for the balance of payment ($1300 of a $1400 job) in the mnailbox. I told her i didn't feel comfortable paying in full for a job without being able to ascertain that the work had, in fact, been done.

I offered to meet him to hand him a check when i came from work yesterday, but she said he didn't want to hang around (even tho she said it was an all-day job). So I said i'd mail it the very next day, something i've often done with contractors. No go. Apparently, he doesn't trust me, or he's been burned before. She suggested I leave work early so i could meet him here earlier. Uh, I don't think so.

So they're coming next Saturday now, when I'll be home, tho don't think i want to listen to that ear-splitting racket all day. It actually worked out good becus it gave me a chance to dig up and relocate a number of perennials and small shrubs that would either be in the way of their cherry picker or would likely be tromped on. So I moved a nannyberry and silky dogwood, both about 6 feet tall, as well as some lamb's ears (easy) and a clematis and beautyberry. I'm pretty sure i killed the nannyberry, though you never know. I don't think i got enough of its root system. I think i heard somewhere that clematis is hard to transplant and/or doesn't like to be moved? Does anyone have any experience with that?

Anyway, it was all backbreaking work as i had to dig up and expand an existing bed elsewhere in the front yard. A lot of bending over and digging.

I also trudged around picking up pieces of a large white pine branch that came down in a storm and heaving them into the brushy perimeter of the yard. I have piles of branches all over the yard edge and it looks unsightly, but there's nothing else to do with it unless i chop it all up to fit in my trunk and bring it, gradually, to the transfer station. It would be a ton of work just to get the branches cut and in my trunk. I've also been thinking of burning it but haven't had time to look into what's involved with that.

Daffodils are also starting to come up out of the ground. Delightful.

On Friday my employer had a St. Patrick's party for us. I was expecting a green cake and maybe green beer, but instead they had a great buffet of chicken wings, chinese dumplings, seafood ravioli, fruit salad and cheese and crackers. It was great, except that i couldn't eat that much since i'd eaten lunch, and this was at 3 pm.

On next Wednesday, my boss and his boss are taking 4 of us writers out to lunch as a thank you for all our hard work. We're still in crunch time writing articles for our new personal finance website, which will launch mid-April. Just 4 weeks away. I've been averaging 1 or 2 stories daily.

Going to see The Golden Compass with H. tonight at our $2 movie theater in town. They recently replaced all the seats with modern ones, with cupholders. The theater is located in our town hall. Very cool.

My snowdrops are in bloom.

Went to Costco this a.m. with mom to get 3 44 lb boxes of cat litter. The idea is to reduce future trips there as i'd rather be doing something else than fighting crowds at Costco.

I also went to Macy's.

That was quite the storm yesterday, extending all day into the night and not ending til dawn today.

First we had torrential downpours, then high winds. I was thankful to check the basement and see only one spot where dripping water through the wall seeped across part of the concrete floor, but it will dry out. Years of off and on attempts to patch those many tiny pinholes in my cinderblock wallls with Thoro-Plug quick-drying cement have apparently have paid off.

I was also thankful not to lose power or have the wind bring down trees or tree branches on wires or the house. Gusts up to 50 mph. I could not fall asleep last night with worry that something might crash onto the roof. All night i listened to those winds.

I did really nothing yesterday, so unlike my usual whirlwind self on the weekends. I stayed inside the whole day, cleaning a bit here and there, doing some bills and paperwork, reading the NYT. I did manage to get 1 of 2 freelance jobs that were still incomplete due to the clients' inattention, out to the press, and then i promptly billed for it. 1 more to go and then i don't have to deal with these little hassles for remainder of the year.

This a.m. a load of laundry is going and i'll be meeting my sister and mother for mom's b'day lunch. Other than that, i'd like to get a walk in and rake up the pile of sunflower seed hulls under the feeder.

there are little shopping errands i have, and keep putting off for the next weekend, but it's just as well i postpone as long as possible. The only thing i really spend on regularly is gas for the car and food, plus the usual bills. But i will be glad when i get those 2 trees taken down (sorry, not to be a broken record).

Thanks for all your comments on yesterday's post, both cat and job-related.

My friend H. and I were planning on seeing a matinee this afternoon, but she had to call it off as her mom's in the hospital. Her 94-yr-old mom lives with her and is in fine health except for high blood pressure. The problems start when she doesn't take her blood pressure meds and she starts getting a little paranoid, belieiving that someone is trying to kill her and so on. She gets very agitated. So she called 911 and the police brought her to the hospital for an overnight stay just to monitor her.

This kind of thing happens regularly with H. She has diabetes herself. I worry about her, and the effect of this sort of stress. For the 1st time ever, she mentioned putting her in a home, but she doesn't want to do that. Still, she mentioned it, so i think maybe she's thinking of it if things continue as they have.

She's strapped for cash, and seems like she's been job-hunting for years, altho all she wants now is p/t work. She's in her mid 60s. A year or so ago she loaned her daughter about $50,000 and she was never paid back. Her daughter has serious financial problems of her own, so unfortunately, that money, which was, essentially, H.'s retirement money, is gone forever. It's very sad.

So with the movie cancelled by the day's events, I'll do another walk as I did yesterday. I really need the exercise. I have not been able to get my weight down from about 135. My clothes are too tight.

Also doing laundry, did some vacuuming and picking up around the house. Ordered 5 tree seedlings (mail order) from a native tree nursery in upstate NY. With all the tree-cutting to come around here, i need to replace diseased or dying trees. So i'm getting a few Blackhaw viburnum and corkscrew willow, which will love it here with my high water table. the Blackhaw will provide berries for the birds.

I just polished off a huge plate of sauted garlic, onion and brussel sprouts for an early lunch, topped off by a heaping spoonful of peanut butter studded with dark chocolate chips. Strange diet habits, i know. I just give in to my cravings and try to keep it healthy.

I'm worried about my cat and i've got to bring her to the vet. I should've done it sooner but she freaks out so much in the car, I hate to put her thru that, but she's been drinking lots of water for quite some time now, which could be a thyroid problem, kidney problem or diabetes. I better find out what it is. I chalked it up earlier to the fact that dry food makes up 95% of her diet, so there's mo moisture in her food. I try to get her to eat canned food, like Sheba, but she'll lick the gravy and leave the rest there, wasting it mostly. But I don't think her water intake is normal anymore.

Have to schedule a physical with PCP tomorrow. I'm quite annoyed with them for requiring me to come in for a visit to renew my sleep aid meds. I'm there every year for a physical, so why do i have to take time off from work and pay a $25 co-pay to tell them what i already told them on the phone? Grrr. So since I'm due for a phsyical, i'll get the meds at that time, but now i'm hoarding what remaining pills i have.

I went to bed last night without taking one, and i slept very, very poorly. I felt super tired around 10:30 so i went to sleep, but then of course thoughts of work kept me awake til i finally turned on the TV at midnight and watched Saturday Night Live, then didn't turn the lights out tiil about 1:30 a.m. and still i tossed and turned.

The other a.m. i sat up in bed at 5 a.m. to write down some really good headlines i came up with for some stories i'm working on. Yes, that's what i was thinking about early in the a.m. Very bad habit.

Waiting to hear back from electrician about when he can install my new light fixture.

Waiting to hear back from tree company to schedule the take down of the mighty black locust and unidentified evergreen.

A lot of balls up in the air. I keep worrying i'm going to forget something, let something go, becus Monday thru Friday my mind is totally focused on work.

I'm working from home today on account of the snowstorm. It was snowing when i got up this morning at 6:30 a.m. and it hasn't stopped yet.


This is from a nor 'easter 2 years ago, but it's getting to that point today...


I've asked my mortgage banker to send me a new amortization table that reflect monthly prepayments of $425, not the $400 i'm doing now. Plus i asked for the running balance for my mortgage, showing payments, etc., for the last 3 years. I do this every once in a while as i read once that it's not unusual for banks to make mistakes in calculating your mortgage payments. With something as iomportant as that, I'll find time to review it. I've done it twice before, though i can't remember exactly when i last did it, so i figured asking for the last 3 years should cover it.

Yes, I'm a little obssessed with paying off the mortgage, and then once that's done, hopefully before age 60 when i plan to semi-retire, i'll plow the same amount of money into savings, not the mortgage. I figure when i get down to the last $5,000 of it, i'll just make a lump sum payment and be done with it.

Obtaning and reviewing an amortization table is actually quite informative. For instance, i can clearly see by scanning mine that these days, in my 12th year of my mortgage, I'm paying about $400 a month just in interest. Inanother 4 years, I'll be paying about $240 a month in interest, so this motivates me to make more prepayments NOW rather than LATER becus i'll save much more in interest. In the last year of my payments, interest will only account for $50 or less in interest each month, so any extra payments then doesn't count for much.

I tallied up my February expenses a week early, just to see where i stood. I was surprised to see I was only $94 in the red, becus i had to shell out so much in federal and state taxes ($1,800). But most of my remaining expenses this month were "essentials." Still, i have a week to go, so will try not to spend anything.

(Temptations abound. I keep thinking of a $35 sailboat model i saw a few weeks ago. It would look good here. I'm an hour from the ocean but i have a sailboat fetish and i love America's Cup b/w prints. I have a large sepia-colored America's Cup print hanging over my bed that i found at Home Goods, very reasonable price.)

these days, my commute is costing me about $100 a week. You heard that right. $100 a week. That sucks. It used to be about $45 a month. I used to feel smug and immune to rising gas prices, but I can't do that anymore.

Looking forward to giving the handy dandy snow thrower a whirl later this afternoon. It's a nice light powdery snow so it should do a swell job.

Work is going very well. We're working toward launching a new website this spring, and before then, the 3 of us have to write about 150 stories for it. Yup, we're mighty busy. The cool thing is that our stories will have bylines (author's name), plus the site will list our bios. So i guess to preserve my anonymity, i won't be able to share with you guys here the website....unless you just come across it, i guess.

I like the job a lot and i get along well with everyone. There are 3 women, all writers like myself, that i'm getting to know and become friends with. Once the weather breaks, i hope for us to be walking regularly during the lunch hour.

And in May, i think, we have summer hours, which means instead of working 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. as we do now, we'll work 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday thru Thursday and then get out of work Friday at 1 p.m.!! (I think there's a few free hours thrown in there, cus the extra 1/2 hour only totals 2 hours, so technically, we shouldn't get out Friday til 3:30 pm, but who's counting??)

I am SO ready for spring, i can't tell you. Of course, spring is the start of my yard demanding my time whether i like it or not, and carpenter ants finding their way to the kitchen. Oh, and worrying about ticks. (I had erlichiosis already, a cousin of Lyme disease.) But I am boyfriendless now, so i am sort of looking forward to seeing how spiffy i can make my yard by devoting some part of most every weekend to it. I've always liked yardwork, but what stressed me out about it in the past was having to do it when i don't have time. I've neglected it greatly in past years, depending on the state of my love life.

I have a little stomach-ache today, and i left my ginger at the office. Seems like everyone is sick these days, especially at the office. I had it once already and when i see someone else getting sick, i give them wide berth. I really hate being sick, it takes at least a week for it to work its way thru my system, and dragging myself to work in the meantime is just so tiring. You can only take so much time off.

Otherwise, life goes on.

Enjoy your weekends!!!!

Oh, thanks, monkey mama, for confirming i'm making the right decision to turn down freelance work, at least for the rest of this year. I've been very torn about that becus i hate the thought of turning down a chance to make more $$, but it came down to, is it worth the effort expended on making a few thousand more in freelance work at a time when my free time has become SO much more valuable, now that i have less of it.

The answer, i think, is "no," but i was feeling very guilty about it. I had just finished writing two press releases for a new, 4th contact at this one company that has given me a lot of work over the past few years. (Any time i can multiply my contacts, and thus expand new sources of business, is good) And she just sent me an email saying here's 2 MORE press releases to do and by the way, this is working out great.

So i felt like a schmuck cus i knew i had to tell her i need to take a step back from it for the time being. But anyway, i just emailed her back my reply. I'm sure she'll understand, but i still am feeling torn about it. Oh well.

The tax situation, essentially paying a total of 36% taxes on just a few thousand dollars ($3500 in 2007) again, just didn't seem to make it worthwhile for the time it took to do that. (My normal tax bracket is just 25%.) I suppose i could have considered raising my rates again, which i did a year ago, but the most i would raise it would be $10, or instead of $135 for a press release, I'd charge $145.

I sort of feel that $135 is near the maximum i could get away with charging. Perhaps I'm wrong, but, even tho a company is paying, not individuals, it seems a fair amount of $ to have 1 person interviewed, a press release written and distributed to the press, usually to about a dozen contacts.

So the plan is to limit my annual freelance work for any one client to $600 (you don't have to report taxes on anything under that amount), do my (tax-free) cat sitting and fit in a $100 focus group or two when i can.

Turns out my sister's boyfriend does indeed want my locust wood. He has a sawmill and my sister asked if i could have the tree guys cut it in 16-foot lengths. I don't know, that seems pretty big but i will ask them.

I was sort of annoyed with my sister cus when she called to tell me that yes, they wanted the wood, she mentioned that she and her boyfriend drove over to my house to look at the tree. I was home, and they didn't even bother to knock on the door and say hello, however briefly. That's my sister, anti-social. She's done that kind of thing before, for instance, dropping something off at my house one summer with my front door wide open, but she just dropped it at the door and left!!

Now, I'm mostly concerned with the damage the tree company's heavy equipment (and my sister's boyfriend, when they come to collect the wood with a backhoe) will do to my lawn and nearby shrubbery. (Am I a nervous Nelly or what?) I have an absolutely gorgeous viburnum which is spectacular in bloom. Heavy equipment really compacts the soil and i think damages roots, but maybe if the ground is still frozen it won't be a problem as much. (I remember when i hired a contractor to hook my house up to the town water, he had to use a backhoe to dig for the line, and for years afterwards i couldn't get a shovel in the ground where he rode.)

I also have a nice beautyberry, grey dogwood and some nannyberry (also a viburnum) in very close proxmity to where they'll need to go with the bucket truck.

And of course when the black locust comes down, so, too, will the trumpet vine which very rapidly spread 100 feet high up its trunks. Its trumpet-shaped orange blossoms attracted hordes of hummingbirds here, and eliminating one food source for these exquisite birds is something i will regret. The base of the locust trees (I have 2 of them) were an ideal place to plant the trumpet vine cus the vines love the sun and locust trees have very sparse leaves and grow very tall. Oh well.

Looking around my yard, there are a number of other trees i would consider having taken down becus of either the threat they pose my house in a storm or becus i see insect damage and/or rot issues. It's an expensive proposition, so perhaps if i budgeted 1 or 2 trees a year. (And cross my fingers nothing happens before then.)I would make a point to get it done in the winter as i think a lot of tree companies are hurting for business then and give you reduced rates. And around here, anyway, they work year-round.

You might not realize it, but trees have a natural lifespan just like people, and i think many of the trees on my property were planted around the same time here, maybe 30 years ago, and many don't look in good shape at all. Two more dogwoods are ailing. 3 apple trees are diseased. I already lost my favorite, biggest old apple tree 2 years ago, as well as another dogwood.

So i'm thinking maybe this is the year i invest a bit of money in tree planting, something i'd skipped the past few years cus i wasn't making much $ and becus i thought i might be moving.

Now with my new job, I could see myself staying here for another 5 years, or at least as long as the job lasts, since if i move, it would be further away from my job, not closer, and so i wouldn't even consider moving while i held this job.

But back to tree planting. In the spring, this area is very wet as there's a whole lot of water coming down the mountain behind me, which leads to a soggy backyard in spring and sometimes a wet basement. Plus, many plants don't like weet feet for an extended time.

I love river birch and they often grow along river banks, so i thought that would be a good choice. The bark is not white like a European white birch. The bark is a beautiful bronze/pink color and peels quite a lot.

I've also always liked magnolia, but in Zone 6 their blooms sometimes get zapped by a late frost, so not sure about that.

I've had enough tree problems here with the mighty white pine, which are still all over the place, so i think i'd like to stick to small trees and shrubs. I already have plenty of rhododendrons, azaela and mountain laurel, many of which are foundation plantings and reach my 2nd story! I should cut them back but they're spectacular in bloom. But i also really like viburnums, as they have nice flowers and produce berries for the birds. And there are so many varieties.

So i think i'll be looking for a viburnum, maybe an arrowwood, and the river birch. Maybe pussy willows cus they like a lot of moisture and it's be great for cuttings.

This am i ordered a gorgeous bathroom light fixture, the kind you'd put on the wall above the vanity and mirror, from Lamps Plus, which has such a great selection. It has 4 shades on it, a satin nickel finish and looks Vicorian. I love it, but it wasn't cheap, but i don't like to buy something i'm going to live with for a long time unless i really love it. So I charged the $229 on my Amex. But just before hitting the submit button, i did a quick search for "Lamps Plus promotions" and found a coupon site that supplied the coupon code for a $10 discount, which Lamps Plus accepted. It ALWAYS pays to do that kind of search before you buy anything online. If it's a fairly well known store, chances are there are some kind of online discounts available.

Of course, i have to pay an electrician to install the thing. My usual guy said $200 to $300, which is TOO MUCH, so i may be shopping around for that as well.

Right now in the downstairs bathroom, there are two small brass-plated single lights on either side of the mirror. They're rusting and squeezed in between the sides of the mirror and the corner of the room. It just doesn't look right, andthey're poorly positioned, so they create a glare. So i wanted a nicer fixture to go above the mirror, where it's supposed to go, with the shades pointing down. I'm going to have some patching to do on the walls as they'll be holes when he removes the 2 old fixtures, but the wallaper in that room is old, curling at the edges and even has some mildew or something on it, so i'm thinking even tho i wasn't planning on starting that project now, maybe i should start removing the wallpaper at least in the area above the mirror where he'll be mounting the new fixture, so that when i do apply the new wallpaper, i won't have to worry about removing the fixture to remove the old.

So many projects, so little time. The story of my life.

It's been almost 5 months since i split with Dr. B., and while i am feeling a little lonely from time to time, i truly don't know how i'd have time for a relationship. Definitely no time during the week, and on the weekends, i rush around playing catch up on everything from house chores, shopping errands and exercise and also just trying to relax a bit and enjoy myself. Catch up with my parents, see a friend. Having a boyfriend means i'd be running over there 1 weekend, or he'd be here and then i'd feel compelled to clean the house before his arrival and make him a nice dinner, etc. So no time for anything else.

Altho i'd like a kayaking partner, I'm sort of looking forward to having this summer to myself so i can spend every weekend on keeping up on the lawn and garden here. With my 1.5 acres, that's what you need. There is a ton of work. And so much brush accumulated from years of trimmings, etc. It never really breaks down as fast as you might hope. When tree branches fall down or i have to prune, i throw it on the woodsy perimeters of my property, but there's so much of it it looks messy and probably attracts insects.

I was thinking about getting a permit from the fire dept to maybe burn some brush. The hard part would be dragging it to a central pile from all corners of the yard. Some logs, lots of smaller stuff. That's where a man would come in handy.

I've given away lots of firewood and taken some un-burnable stuff (pine stumps) to the dump, but i've already been scolded for bringing logs bigger than 6" in diameter there. If it's bigger than that, you're supposed to pay, and I don't even want to go there, so i sneak a few pieces in when i drop my trash off and unload it quickly before anyone notices. Sshhh!

Yesterday i spent a few hours on shopping errands with my neighbor/friend H. I need to socialize a LITTLE bit each weekend or i go nuts. So i redeemed a coupon at Bob's (clothing store) getting 2 pajama sets for $2.50, then bought some CFL bulbs at Home Depot for .68 (using the rest of an old gift card from a refund i made) and spent $40 on Norton antivirus 08 as i had some troubling computer problems recently and wondered if i have a virus.

Then i came home and cooked up a 10 pound turkey i'd bought at .60/lb before T-giving and had myself a wonderful dinner, freezing some meat and keeping some for sandwiches during the next few days.

Do i get a lot done on my weekends or what??? Oy-e-vay!

Hello, friends. It's been a few weeks since i last blogged. But while i may be blogging less frequently now, i'm still with you guys in spirit!

The job's still going. I guess it's been about 5 weeks now. (Is that all? Seems like a lot longer.) The work remains very, very interesting, and I am making friends with two other writers there, so i often have a lunchtime companion, which is nice. I like the job because I work very independently; basically, i get my writing assignments and as long as i complete them (according to various parameters, of courses) everyone seems happy.

One good thing about the job, with its associated commute, is that it keeps me from spending much during the week! I still manage to bring my own lunch in most days, though for a treat we went to Boston Market once and then a gourmet supermarket another time.

Even on the weekends, i've been relishing my R&R so much that i haven't gone out to do much spending. Though that will be changing soon. On my short list of things to do are cutting down 2 BIG trees on my property. One is a 150 foot black locust whose top branches sway back and forth with a good wind like grasses in a breeze. The tree doesn't threaten the house, but would definitely take down the electricla and phone lines going to the house from the road, and if it happened on a cold day while i was at work say, my pipes could freeze. The other tree is a single trunk evergreen with termite damage starting from the bottom up. It doesn't apapear to be in good health. I got what i thought was a pretty good price. $975 to take down the locust, which as i said is about 150 feet high with 3 main trunks, and $500 for the evergreen, a single trunk but also pretty high.

I'd gotten prices on the black locust a few years ago (it also has a crotch near the base that collects rainwater and has some rot) and as a recall the quote was in around $3,000. Probably becus that tree company was based in my hometown, which is higher priced than the town the other company is from. And also, this time year, tree companies don't get a lot of business, so i timed it right.

Anyway, i'm waiting for a callback from my sister to see if her boyfriend will take the locust tree as firewood. It's a very dense wood, and rot resistant, like cedar. I'm counting on that beccuse it saves me $$ not to have the tree company haul it away. (I don't have a fireplace.) If they had to do that, the cost would be $1400. She burns firewood all day long.

I'm proud to say I did both my state and federal taxes last weekend. I had to shgell out $1100 to the feds and $$600 to the state, due mainly to: some investments that did very well, like my International fund which threw off a huge amount in capital gains, and the fact that i don't pay taxes on my freelance income during the year.

I've done 4 freelance jobs this year, but when i finish up the last 2 i'm now working on, i'm going to tell them i can't do any more for now due to the demands of my new job. Otherwise, i'm gonna feel like i'm working round the clock, and R&R time (also known as replenish and rejuvenate) will be minimal. A big factor in that decision is how much i pay in taxes on my freelance work. I don't have any overhead so i don't claim any deductions for the office, etc. But i pay my reguarl taxes in 25% tax bracket PLUS (Moneky mama correct me if i'm wrong) another 15% in self-employment taxes). I only grossed $3500 in freelance work this past year but ended up paying so much in taxes the tradeoff in lost free time hardly seems worth it for the effort. So i will stop after these 4 jobs becus they will total $515; for freelance income under $600, the IRS won't require you to report, and the employer won't issue a 1099, so that money will be TAX FREE. But that's all i'm doing cus all work and no play makes me CRANKY!

I gave it a yeoman's effort. I spent all day indoors today, and the thermometer didn't budge more than 2 degrees from my a.m. reading of 20.

One of my 08 goals is at least 30 minutes of daily exercise, usually through walking this time of year.

So fighting lethargy, i began layering my clothes for a walk. The long underwear and sweat pants. 3 layers of sweatshirts and turtlenecks. Mittens, a coat, hat and hood plus scarf. The abominable, adorable snow-woman is ready for a walk.

It was the dry, brittle kind of cold that makes it hard to breathe. I waddled down my street, swaddled as i was in 5" of cotton and polyester. I made it to the end, then turned back toward my house. A grand total of: 7 minutes of walking. Yippeeeeee.

What else i accomplished today:

* Made a rice/apple/raisin salad for weekday lunches, & boiled some eggs for egg salad sandwich.

(I am determined to continue eating healthy despite loss of time....when i had an even longer commute to a stressful job in 1999, i rationalized eating lunch out every single day by saying i'd earned it and was making good money. Problem was, i put on weight, and i see now my weight has crept up to within 4 pounds of my heaviest weight ever, which was 139. It may not sound like a lot to you, but i'm petite and not that tall, so that's too much for me. When i was dating T., i was down to a low of 119 and i have to admit i looked and felt GREAT. However, it was very hard to attain that weight and i would be happy to remain at 125, a weight i stayed at for many years.)

* Read parts of the Sunday paper and Money magazine

* Wasted time online...not here, of course!

* Topped off the sunflower seed in the bird feeders, refreshed the birdbath water (the one with a water heater) and put out 2 more suet cakes. Birds are ravenous today. Chickadees careening into juncos who are sparring with white throated sparrows and titmice zooming in to steal a seed whenever they can. The house wrens, which aren't seed eaters, were out eating the suet (rendered fat) which to them tastes like big, fat, yum-o-licious BUGS. And it gives them the energy they need to make it thru these nights without freezing to their roosts.

* Logged my bird count entries online for Ornithology Lab

* Contemplated darning a hole in a very good sock i bought 14 years ago in preparation for a trip to Alaska. They're very warm and i think it's worth doing. Did i do it? Uh, no.

* Clipped kitty's toenails. 2 of them. She doth protest.

* "Tidied up"

* Long talk with mom

I saw with relief that my $18K 401k rollover has arrived and is now parked in my money market fund. I'll be moving $4K of it tomorrow into small cap stock funds to take advantage of bargain basement prices. I should have been able to do this online, but inexplicably, one of the 2 funds i wanted to move the $ to wasn't listed there as it should've been.

My dad called Friday night to see how the new job's been going. We had a good talk. Apparently his SO hadn't passed on my email comments about the job i'd sent her a week ago in response to a phone message she left me telling me she's a grandmother now for the 2nd time. (She was very excited.) She's visiting her daughter and son in law where they live in Britian for 3 weeks in February.

Since i have President's Day off, i'm contemplating another trip down to keep my dad company while she's away. It would save me driving time to leave straight from work on Friday night, but i imagine the traffic would be hell. I don't know.

Thanks, dear friends, for the concern you expressed about our snowy weather last Monday. Luckily, my part of the state escaped relatively unscathed, with just a few inches.

I used my new snow thrower and it worked really well. Course, the real test will be when we get 6 inches or more. I was so concerned about getting to work on time that day, especially with it being a new job, that i woke up at 5:30 a.m., left at 6:30 a.m. and ended up getting to work an hour earlier than i needed to. In the future, i think it'll be possible to work from home on very snowy days. And i now know how to connect with our email from another location, so there'd be no problem there.

So i wrapped up week 2 at the new job. Everything's going well. I am definitely working harder and being more productive than at my old 'cush' job, but of course i knew that would be the case. My days go by faster now. I'm averaging about 1 story daily, or 1 story every 1.5 days.

What i like most about the job is that i have an opportunity to write about a fairly wide range of topics, though still mainly sticking to personal finance. When i'm given an assignment, it's pretty general, expressed in a single sentence, which is what i like cus i can go down whatever path my research takes me. But generally, of course, the stories are meant to provide consumer-oriented, educational tips and guidelines on all sorts of stuff, and personal finance has always been interesting to me. Plus, the stories are fairly short, about 600 words, so you never get bored working for days on end on something. And each time i research a story, i learn a little something, too.

Luckily, I'm not banging out the stories on this old relic...


I bought this typewriter at a yard sale in New Hampshire over 20 years ago. I don't remember what i paid for it then, but i sold it last summer at my own garage sale for $20 to a man who sought out old typewriters and used the old keys to make typewriter jewelry. (I really like my necklace with my initial on it, tho i didn't buy it from him.)

Anyway, it can be tiring toward the end of the week, because this is a pure writing job, and you tend to get brain-dead after a while. At my last job, becus we were such a small office (2 of us), i spent 1/2 my time doing administrative type chores, which i really didn't mind as it gave me a break from using my noggin.

I've managed to walk at lunchtime for at least a 1/2 hour a few times again this week. As i walked by the Xerox building yeterday, i saw a helicopter take off from the roof.Not sure i'll want to continue that this week as it's supposed to be much colder.

On the downside, i've definitely noticed the lack of free time outside of work. So becus there's not much time for anything else on my weekday nights (just fix my dinner, read the mail, make lunch for the next day, lay out my clothes and an hour or so of TV, then hit the sack early), i'm finding that i'm mostly playing 'catch up' on the weekends, something i've done before with long commute jobs.

Except that this a.m. i really didn't feel like getting out of bed. Not that i slept more, my cat saw to that. But i did loll around til 11 a.m., padding about and not really getting going til then. I grabbed a few groceries, made a bank deposit with what will likely be the last income from my freelance work for a while, stopped at Walmart to get earphones to play CDs at work (got 'em home and they're the same length...3 feet, as what i have now, which is too short due to the way the laptop which i plug into is positioned toward the back of my desk on a shelf.) Picked up a DVD at the library for tonight or tomorrow, did a load of laundry, washed a bunch of dishes and baked a pineapple yogurt bread to snack on next week. Also got some nitrite-free cold cuts for lunch sandwiches, and also eggs for egg salad sandwiches, which I LOVE.

My social life is suffering a little. With my new commute, i really don't want to drive anywhere on the weekends, which poses a problem since most of my friendds don't live in my town. And to be honeste, i feel bad about my cat being alone for so much longer these days, so on the weekends i like to mostly stay in and hang out with her. She doesn't go outside, so i'm all her entertainment.

I thought i was getting together this weekend with R., for instance, but he never called so don't know what's going on. (He's going thru a divorce right now, and he's been very prickly to talk to and deal with.) Spoke to friend M. on the phone during the week at lunchtime; he was home sick, and is also settling in to a new (4 months) job that for him was long in coming. His daily commute, by train to NYC, is 3 hours, so my 1.75 hours daily is much better in comparison.

Anyway, i truly count my blessings. There's so much economic uncertainty these days and the price of everything is going up. I am very much aware that i am fortunate to have a good job with good benefits and hopefully a long future.

I've looked at my numbers again and i don't really see why i can't save 25% of my income this year. Unfortunately, i'm not eligible to start contributing to the 401k for 3 months, so that means i'll get used to a much higer net income until May 1, when i open the 401k, and suddenly i'll have to get used to less money in the paycheck.

Don't see how i could even consider dating someone again. I relish my weekend downtime now and, selfishly, prefer to do what I want to do on the weekend rather than have to get into all the compromises and obligatory stuff that can fill one's time when you're part of a couple.

I started a weekend-only subscription to the New York Times, and really, tomorrow i'm looking forward to more lolling around spending half the day reading the paper.

Big snowstorm coming overnight, just in time for the a.m. commute. I hate snow, but only when i have to drive in it, which is most of the time. Otherwise, it's lovely.

Now at my old job, just 1/2 mile away, my boss was so good to me HE would call me and say don't bother coming in. It was always a relief when he did that. That way, i didn't feel guilty.

I don't think that will happen now. I was really plannng on calling my new boss and asking if i could work from home tomorrow (can't think of a job that lends itself better to work at home more than a writer, but anyway) or, if not, if he could pick me up on his way in. I don't know if he has 4 wheel drive, but it'd be preferable than having to negotiate the roads myself. However, i realized i don't have his number and couldn't find it online.

There are 3 different 'local' TV stations here. One says 8 to 14" of snow and the other says 4 to 8". I can drive in the latter, not sure about the former. I had some terrible times trying to get home during blizzards in years of past with a similarly long commute. That probably explains my fear of winter driving.

So, umm, just as soon as i got feeling comfortable that my wake up routine was reasonable, looks like i'm getting up earlier than 6:20 a.m. tomorrow. Guess i'll shoot for 5:30 a.m., which won't be enough time to clear my driveway AND get to work on time, but it'll be a yeoman's effort.

The weekend was nice, but uneventful. Did some walking today with friend H., who told me she has just $8 left of her SS money to last the rest of the month. After the walk, we stopped at local diner for hot cocoa and split a piece of pie, my treat.

Other than that, i did my own 20-minute walk before meeting her becus she walks real slow and it doesn't seem like real exercise to me. It was so warm today i also swept the driveway, as leaves seem to have deposited themselves all over the place when i didn't remember them being there before.

One of the bluestone pieces on the step on my front stoop busted apart (the concrete, which i had done myself over the summer). I guess there's some trick to getting this to last, but i don't know. Now it'll remain broken and a hazard until spring, at the earliest.

Spent the a.m. preparing two salads that should last me most of the week for lunch at work and dinner at home. The at work salad consists of pasta, imitation crabmeat, or pollock, peas, green onion and red pepper, with a little Paul Newman's balsamic vinegarette.

The dinner salad, which i had tonight, was a mixture of chick peas, wheat berries, goat cheese, green onion and pistachio nuts tossed with balsamic vinegar and honey over spinach and arugula. I had a huge bowlful.

I was going to get the NYT, but never got around to it. Instead, i put away all the Xmas decorations, watched a movie (Monsuer Ibrahim, very good, with Omar Shariff, 2003) and vacuumed both floors.

Yesterday, i was definitely fighting the spending bug. Mea culpa, i bought 2 garnet pieces on TV last night, a pendant on a necklace and a ring. The prices they offer on TV are so much better than what you get elsewhere, i guess becus they can buy in bulk. I remember 20 years ago a friend of mine took me to St. Thomas and went on and on about how we had to buy jewelry there cus their prices were great, etc. I remember somewhat reluctantly spending $150 hard-earned money on am emerald ring, which i still have today, but the size of that emerald is miniscule compared to what the same $$ could get me on QVC.

I also did yet more grocery shopping to get some fresh produce items needed for my salad recipes. Seems like i'm constantly spending money on groceries, so much for just 1 person. I try very hard not to waste anything, but still, it can be hard not to.

Right now, i'm eating 3 clementines at a time to make sure they don't start going bad on me. I bought a box for $2.99, which was a great price, so now i'm making sure they're eaten!

Also went to the dump yesterday. Alas, i hope all my weekends aren't used up on chores and errands.

Bummer Disclaimer: Looks like due to lack of time my blogging here will be limited to the weekends for the foreseeable future, my friends.

The new job's going really GREAT. I'm really excited about it. I wrote 4 stories already (!) and i think they're happy with me. The people in my group have been super-nice and very helpful in helping me to acclimate.

I work with mostly men (a novelty, but who's complaining?) in my particular group, which is Creative Services.

By taking backroads to work, i've cut my 60-minute commute down to 43 minutes, but i think i'll stick to the longer route at night and also in snowy weather, as those back roads get very slippery. Still, i'm thrilled to have another route that i should be driving exclusively once the days get a little longer.

There are so many differences between this company and my former employer. Size, for one. (new one has 300 employees in my location vs. 45 total for my old one, and just 4 in my old office).

My new employer is a much bigger company (offices elsewhere) with a great deal more resources than my old employer, which is evident in that they have the best of everything (everyone gets a laptop) and the benefits are superior in every way. We even have a completely paperless payroll system, so i got paid yesterday (I think) but don't know yet the software system to view my pay and deductions. Will call my bank to see if it's been deposited.

Another big difference...my old boss, much as i liked him and as much as he was a great human being who treated me well, well, he never was a good 'teacher.' Everything i learned during my 3.5 years there was hard-won knowledge, becus i was really on my own. Being isolated from our HQ meant i had no one else to turn to with questions or for vital background info, and my boss was just too busy and not inclined to spend much time on that. So that really hampered my learning curve. But that's one of the reasons he liked me so much, becus i could work independently.

At my new employer, it's not like that at all. There's been one guy in particular who has gone out of his way to help teach me various things on the computer, proprietary software and so on. I've learned more from him in one week than