The last 2 days were warm enough (in the low 40s) that i could get outside for a nice, hour-long walk. Yesterday when i walked, i filled a canvas bag full of litter....mostly bottles and cans that can be redeemed.

Picking up litter while on my walks is something i do becus i can't stand the look of a beautiful woodsy road trashed by litter, plus i can redeem the bottles and cans and use that money in much the same way as someone else would use a coupon on their next grocery trip. However, i do also pick up flattened cans and non-redeemable containers as this can still be recycled.

I'm still reading Garbage Land, and it's just reinforced the point that new bottles and cans are produced at such enormous cost to the environment in terms of natural resources mined, air pollution and elecricity spent.

I still feel embarrassed to be seen picking up litter, though. So i'll wait til any cars in the area pass. Stupid, but that's just me.

I plan to walk again today, this time to the library to return some DVDs.

Two more good DVDs i watched were Water, an Indian movie about a widow (widows are relegated to low-caste status in India becus they're not supposed to have a life after their husband dies; i think the husband gets to remarry) who falls in love with a Brahim (higher class) man but she ultimately kills herself becus his parents don't approve of the marriage.

When the Sea Rises is a French/Belgium movie about 2 eccentric people who have an affair. She is a middle-aged married woman who spends a lot of time on the road traveling to different venues where she performs a clown routine. He works for a carnival type troupe. It's a very tender and bittersweet romance, as she ultimately needs to return to her husband and child.

I finally did some food shopping at the only Shop Rite around here, and i think it was worth it. Rice milk, which i use in my breakfast cereal, costs me $1.39 at Stop N Shop; there was a sale at Shop Rite so they cost $1 a quart. (Before they started selling it at S&S, i had to shell out $1.79 at a health food store.) I took the maximum of 4, paid for my groceries and decided to return for a 2nd trip and got 4 more, partly becus i had a coupon for Lean Cuisine and at checkout the cashier offered me my coupon back (??!), so on that return trip i also got more Lean Cuisine with the same $2 discount. Cool.

Shop Rite also had 32 oz. bags of walnuts for $9.99, which came out to about $5 a lb, less than Stop N Shop's low price of $6.99 a pound. For me, walnuts are a staple i always like to have in the house.

I started up a new price book to better compare Stop and Shop vs. Shop Rite purchases on my most commonly purchased food items.

Shop Rite is a bit of a ride, 15-20 minutes, but i've now signed up for their email circular, so when i see at least a few sale items i want, i think i will try to make a point to start trekking over there instead of Stop N Shop. (I won't do both, as the extra spent in gas to get there will likely eat up any cost savings on groceries.)

Groceries were a big expense last year and i'd like to work on that without sacrificing my organic preferences. The Shop Rite is in a huge shopping area with everything there, so if there are other things i can combine in the trip, so much the better.

I have a good freelance client who is now 2.5 months late in paying me $270 for work done in mid october. C'mon! They are a national company and while business is slow now for them, i don't think it's due to $ issues.

Each time i inquire, i'm told "it's being processed." Now, for the first time ever since i've been freelancing, the next time they ask me to do new work, i'm going to have to politely decline until i get paid. I have to be careful to be tactful about it, as this client gives me a lot of work. When i inquired about it before, it was directly with my client, who i know forwards my invoices to their accounting dept in another location. So on MOnday i'll call their accounting dept. directly. This is all very annoying. I don't have a lot of time to go chasing after my money.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Partly becus i'm really trying to consolidate any car trips into 1 big trip to save on gas whenever possible.

So that means: going to Stop N Shop solely to take advantage of their 33% sale on all Pepperidge Farm breads. I'm going to buy 4 or so and store them in the freezer. OK, i just ignored my earlier stated rule that i wouldn't shop at more than 1 grocery store each week, but i'm allowing that this time as i'm combining other necessary chores in this trip.

Since the dump is on the way, i'll also drop some trash off there, as well as my last Good Will donation of the year.

While in the car, i'll head down to the post office to drop off my junk mail in those blue recycling bins they have in the lobby. I am fond of saying, "They give it to me, and i give it back!"

I also need to price oil at 4 or 5 area suppliers and then try to fill up the tank, only about 1/2 empty this week, before i leave for dad's on Wednesday. I figured it'd be best to top off the tank now as they require COD and i can't figure out how to do that if i'm working an hour away. Plus i'm guessing prices will be a bit cheaper now as it's been a relatively mild winter so far, as compared to what we can expect in February.

Also on the way back from S&S i'll get about $15 worth of gas. That should get me down to my dad's house on Wednesday, and then i should be close to empty so i can fill up the tank and take advantage of New Jersey's MUCH lower gas prices.

I've been wanting to go to Walmart to get a room thermometer and some cracked corn for the doves around here, but it would make more sense to save that for when i'm coming back from my dad's on Thursday.

I do believe i planned that trip to dad's so that there won't be snow or rain driving either way. We've had a lot of that lately, and are expecting 3 or 4 inches overnight tonight. Which is fine, as i can give my new snow thrower another try since i had to get it fixed (belt came off). I hope this $279 thing isn't too temperamental and does that every time i kick up some gravel on my driveway. I do have some loose stuff on the driveway as it's breaking up. I am depending on this snow thrower to clear my driveway so i can get to work on time after a storm! Don't fail me Mighty Snow Thrower!

I've been reading, reading, reading to prep for the new job. Nearly done with what i assigned myself, and after that i want to start making a list of websites that will help me when i start researching my stories. I'll be studying what's on the sites which are often cited in the many articles i gave myself to read from my new employer's site as well as Kiplinger's, Smart Money and CNN/Money, etc. I know, of course, that they won't be expecting me to know all this at the get-go, but the more prepared i am and more familiar i am with the subject matter, the more confiden i'll feel going in. God, i should have been a Girl Scout cus I am SO prepared.