I'm a planner. I'm super-organized, most of the time. And I'm also determined to use my precious gas wisely.

So Friday, after getting out of work around 3:15 pm (yippee!), i took the long way home so i could stop at Shop-Rite. They really do have the best prices, though not on EVERYTHING. Hence, the need for my pricebook. On the way there, I filled up the gas tank and made note of the odometer reading. thanks to having cleaned out my glove box a week earlier, i actually was able to use a half dozen of soon-to-expire coupons. (I throw so many expired ones away.)

I had some frozen stuff with me, but had remembered to bring 3 reusable ice gel paks with me to work in the a.m. and stored them in the office fridge. So i put them to use when I left Shop-Rite and raced over to my neighbor's house to check in and feed the kitty on my last day of cat-sitting duty.

Then homeward bound, where i unloaded everything.

This a.m., i had still a few more errands to do but wanted to stick to my self-imposed "1 trip for errands per weekend" rule. So at 6:45 am (yes, crazy, i know, but i get up early for work and can't sleep late) i got on my bicycle and pedaled about a mile and a half to the post office, where i needed stamps to ensure that American Express couldn't bill me for a late payment fee. The lobby was closed but the nice postal guy who gives box holders their mail agreed to sell me a roll of stamps if i had exact change, which i did. He was also very impressed that i biked there, which i told him when he initially said "we're closed." He took pity on me.

Then i pedaled back toward the Big Y supermarket, a high-priced supermarket close to home. Don't normally go there, but i had a coupon to try Kellogg's new oat strawberry squares for free after rebate, and Shop Rite didn't carry the brand. Big Y did, so i'll get reimbursed for it anyway.

Then a stop at the bank ATM, where i rolled my bike right into the lobby with me; i figured by the time anyone saw me to scold me, i'd be done with my transaction.

It was a good time to pedal around; traffic was quite light.

When I got back, i did 3 loads of laundry and the last one is now hanging out on the clothesline to dry. It's quite hot today, so it's like a super-charged dryer out there.

I also made a really good berry crisp, using a recipe my grandmother had given me for apple crisp, but substituting frozen blueberries i'd picked with dad in NJ, frozen raspberries, and fresh raspberries i picked in my yard. (Plus oats, nuts.) Had a small bowl with some ice cream and i was in heaven.

Since i was heating up the big oven, a rare ooccurrence, i also decided to make my mom's granola recipe at the same time and stick that in the oven too. It's super easy, i don't know why i never tried it before. Just mix together 4 cups old-fashioned uncooked oats, raisins, nuts of your choice, chopped dried fruits, such as apricot or dried apple, wheat germ and a 1/2 cup of oil. Then bake at 325 for 20 minutes. I add fresh coconut flakes afterwards as they get a little dry after being baked. So i made about a box full of cereal.

God, let's see what else i've done and it's only 2:45 pm....i vaccuumed the upstairs floor and picked up quite a bit. I ordered a darling wicker basket for my bike, to make it more practical for carrying things, which i hope will encourage me to use it more for simple errands. I also ordered a 2nd box fan from Walmart for $15 using their Ship to Store feature, which i find very convenient. You don't have to run the risk of driving to the store and finding that they're out of what you want; they send you an email after your online order arrives in the store, and then you pick it up. It's painless, and no time wasted standing in line.

I bought the 2nd fan cus i want to make more use of a fan cooling technique i'd read about. AT night, when it's cooler outside, you leave all the downstairs windows open ONLY 1-2 inches. You put fans in the upstairs windows, facing out, and this creates a draft from the downstairs up to the 2nd level and blows all that hot air out. I tried it before and it didn't really work, but that's becus i only had 1 upstairs fan which i don't think was enough.

So i'll have the 2 window box fans and 3 ceiling fans. I hope to avoid using my 1 window a/c for the rest of the season. I used it once, but any AC is going to be an enormous energy hog so i'd rather not use it.


After 5 days of those hives with not much sign of improvement, i finally caved and went to see a doctor, a new one in the town where i work. It was his opinion that the hives weren't caused by bug bites as i would have had some sign of bites on my ankles, and i had none. So he felt the hives were an allergic reaction to my overzealous pill-popping, following the herbal protocol recommended in a book i read (Curing Lyme Disease.

So I stopped taking the herbs. I did restart one of them, reservertrol, becus i'm pretty sure i can rule that one out as being the source of the problem since i had run out of them before getting to my dad's house and hadn't been taking them there when the hives occurred.

But a few days after stopping the herbs, my headaches returned, and i was feeling very upset and frustrated.

I took another look at the recommended dosage and it's my feeling they really were very high doses of the herbs. I would like to restart the other 2 herbs but keep to a much more reasonable dose since they were effective in dealing with my Lyme-induced headaches.

One step at a time. Right now, i'm still wrapping up a 5-day course of Prednisone which was meant to deal with the hives. (It has.)

I should get about $105 from my week of cat-sitting. I always like to equate what some unexpected income will pay for. Like, that $105 will pay for 2 weeks worth of groceries, or my electric AND cable bill combined. Doing that makes it seem that much more worthwhile.

I clocked my mileage for the 3rd consecutive fillup and was disappointed to see it dropped a little, to 36 miles per gallon. Still good, but not as good as 42.

In a few hours, after the heat of the day has passed, i will don my hip boots (fisherman use these), spray myself with Deet, and venture into the mess of brambles in my backyard. You sweat like the dickens, and if a neighbor saw me, they'd shake their head, but they won't, as my backyard is exceedingly private. Berry season lasts just a few weeks, and while i've enjoyed picking a bout a 1/2 cup or so each evening for the following breakfast's bowl of cereal, I WANT MORE, and i can see oodles of red berries beckoning me from further into the thicket. I will bring my clippers with me so i can clip thru the thickets without picking up more ticks. I can freeze the berries (organic) for winter use. Hey, these babies go for $3.99 for a teensy little container at the store.

My neighbor with whom i commute with said they've got acres and acres of brambles loaded with berries but haven't had time to pick. (They have 9 acres.) I've got plenty myself, or i might even invite myself to berry pick up there.

I was reading a story in my local paper about the dilemman homeowners face about when to buy the coming winter season's heating oil. Now, later, or both? Lock into a pre-paid contract or pay as you go and take the risk?

They mentioned that those who lock in now and pre-buy their fuel will be looking at paying about $4.84 a gallon. I see that's considerably higher than the $4.24 i paid to fill my tank in late June. Now luckily, becus i have a small house and i keep the heat way, way down (about 60), i can squeak by each season and only fill my tank up twice. So i may get really burned when i have to fill up that second time sometime in late January, but that's the way it's gonna be.

About 6 years ago, i and several other homeowners in my town and surrounding areas lost a lot of $$ when they prepaid for the winter's heating oil and the company declared bankruptcy. The attorney general's office got involved and it's taken this long for the thing to be resolved. It was never certain whether we'd ever see our money again, as we're all unsecured creditors, but it looks like we will. I should be getting back in the area of $425, so don't when that's happening (my state works at a snail's pace to process things) but it will certainly be much needed to apply to this season's fuel.

I have now and again considered getting a wood stove to supplement the oil, as this house has no fireplace. I believe that it once did, but the house burned down and when it was rebuilt, they didn't add the fireplace. It would help, as i have a great deal of trees on this small property and i've given so much wood away to others, for free. I'm gonna skip that for now, but lately i've been thinking of going up into the attic, removing a section of the carpeting up there, and then i guess the plywood floor under that, to see how much insulation there is under the main middle section of the attic.

One of the first things i did when i bought this place was to add insulation behind the kneewalls, but under the carpeting is not that easily accessible unless you rip it all up. I think this might be the time to do that. For all i know, there's 6 inches of the stuff up there and that's it. I should have R-49 up there and that would be just as much a cost-saver as getting a wood stove, in my opinion. If i had a man around here, it's the kind of thing i'd want to tackle myself. I might still try to do it, though it doesn't take much to trip me up.