Yes, i am well-stocked for weeks to come. Just the result of taking advantage of better prices at Stop Rite. I may be overdoing the "get ready for the new job/prepare for less time," thing, but anyway, my freezer is jam-packed, and everything else.

Poor little kitty, she's going to have to re-adjust once i start working again. No more lunch home every day (ahh, what a luxury), and no more get home at 5:05 pm. She has gotten into the habit of interrupting her daylong snooze to come and get some rubs and scratches every hour or so throughout the day, if i'm home. Now i'll likely be getting home around 7 pm, 6:30 at the very earliest.

Thankfully they are widening portions of the road i'll be commuting on, and i was even reading online about their progress. They won't be done until 4/2010; that's 2 years and 4 months from now. Sigh.

I tried to give away a dozen unused candles, a styrofoam cooler with gel paks and some other items on freecycle, but had no takers. It really seems that in my area, everyone expects the best, even if they're getting it for free. I've seen people say they're looking for a computer, but it must come with XP on it. Or they want a fridge, but it must be less than 5 years old.

I'm topping off my half full oil tank on Friday. Sticker shock: price was $3.19 a gallon, up from $2.19 wheni filled up last August. My guess is it will increase even more in January/February.

I'm not doing anything for New Year's eve; it's not usually a holiday i make a big deal of, even if i'm dating someone. I'm just thankful that now that we're past the hump of 12/21, the days are getting longer again.

And I'm thankful for my new job, and really looking forward to making some decent money again. Not knowing how long i'll be there (could be 2 years or 12, in which case, this would be my LAST f/t job), or whether i will want or be able to get a higher paying job like this again, i plan to be really careful and save as much of my salary as i can...defintely 15%, that goes without saying, but ideally i want to try for 20 or 25% of income. I think it's doable. I just have to be mindful of not allowing my spending to rise as my income rises. That's happened before, and it's so easy to do when suddenly all these temptations become possible to absorb without any real dent in your budget (except that it means less goes to savings).

Not having children, i can be very, very focused on a single long-term savings goal: retirement. (My secondary goal is paying off my mortgage in 7 years.) My net worth right now is about $437,000, not including my house which i currently have about $322,000 in equity). It still seems like a very long ways to go before i hit my 1st million, but according to all those online retirement calculators, i will have that by the time i'm 58 or 60, at my current savings rate. I am really intent on fast forwarding my savings rate and a new job with better income and the start of a new year is an ideal time to focus on that.