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!