After some thought, and reading an article about it, i decided to create my very own "professional" blog. The purpose of this blog is to showcase my writing talents in the event i get laid off and have to start job-hunting. Think of it as just another tool in the arsenal.

I could choose any number of things to write about, but it makes sense to show my expertise in subject matter that i could still be covering in any new job.

Although i don't expect to be posting much except on weekends, it's better to have it up and running with a number of posts rather than have to start from scratch immediately after a layoff. I would include the blog, http://consumers-corner.blogspot.com, in my cover letter.

I hope you'll check it out! I have exactly one post up there!

Why does Shop Rite have to have their sales end on a Saturday and begin on a Sunday? I know it's the end of one week and the start of the next, but the fact is, most shoppers do the bulk of their shopping on the weekend. Depending on what's on sale, it kind of forces you to go out on one day or the other, which is not always convenient.

Today is one of those days i just don't feel like going anywhere. I missed that window of time in early a.m. when it's not that crowded, too. But today they have chicken quarters on sale at .49 a pound, and i wanted to try my friend's recipe for chicken paprikosh.

But if i go tomorrow, there are many other items on sale, like the sour cream i need for that recipe, along with the ingredients for a salmon corn chowder which i also fancied making.

Shop Rite's a good 20-minute ride, so it doesn't make sense to go today and tomorrow.

Looks like i'll go tomorrow a.m. I just feel like hibernating today.

I was surprised it hadn't happened sooner, but Dollar Savings Direct, which was paying 4% on its online money market account, dropped its rate to 3.5% Still, it's better than most.

I've been thinking a lot, lately, about work and income, partly becus i realize that if the stock market doesn't bounce back really well within the next 10 years (and who knows, really?) I am going to have to make up for my losses by myself. And for me, that doesn't mean working longer. I'm not ready to give up my dream of semi-retirement at 60, which really means still working, but at a saner clip, part-time, and doing something because i want to, not because i have to.

So instead of a brisk jog toward retirement, i am doing a long distance, all-out sprint.

I've been given more responsiblity at work which i welcome mainly becus it's a signal to me that at least they don't have plans to let me go in immediate future. I'm now going to be managing our relationship with an outside company that has 4 writers contributing to our website. It'll mean making weekly assignments, editing their work and loading the stories to our site. It'll take significant extra time to do, but the hardest part for me will be coming up with story assignments. If they're good, i'd just as soon write them myself, but i'm gonna have to come up with fascinating fodder on a regular basis, not just for me, but for several others.

I felt a sense of accomplishment yesterday cus i did my phone interview and wrote up a bio. That little bit of work, maybe 2 hrs worth, will yield $133 in freelance income.

For the past 4 years or so, i've had just two freelance clients, thanks to contacts i made when i worked f/t at one of them.(Never burn bridges.) Each client has many sales offices throughout the state, and over time my original 2 contacts has grown to about 5 managers who regularly gave me work, really more work than i could handle. So last year i told Client #2 i was too busy with my new f/t job and had to stop accepting assignments. They would give me 5 or assignments at a time and it was just overwhelming. (Where were they when i was unemployed?)

But to be honest, too much work from Client #2 was not the real reason i told them i wasn't accepting assignments anymore. The main reason is that, already working a full-time job, it was very hard squeezing in the freelance in what little free time i had, and equally important, i lost about a THIRD of my income to taxes. (I have very few legitimate deductions as my home office is not dedicated solely to freelance, and i have next to no overhead.)

I kept questioning whether it was worth the trouble. I didn't feel i could raise my rates much higher, although the sweet spot for me would be to get fewer jobs, but higher paying ones. That could be the net result of my raising my rates, although no one has ever objected to my rates, ever. (Maybe they just wouldn't say anything.)

I never told Client #1 to stop giving me work because their assignments were much more irregular and i found them easier to manage. I told them i really just had the weekends and if they were ok with that, i could do it. (No more weekday nights, i am not a machine.)

But now with the new year i felt justified in raising my rates. I have no expenses at all so i can't say my expenses have risen, unless you claim that inflation in general has forced me to raise my rates.

So for a press release with distribution, i now charge $149, $133 for a bio, $260 for a property listing (detailed, room by room description), and general editing or website copy @ $60/hr. Each year i would raise my rates 10%, which is actually a lot. But I started out pretty low, so for the greater NYC area, these rates are not eggregious; yet, i sense they're near the maximum limit i could expect to charge for my client base, which are both large real estate brokerages, who aren't making much money now. My rates would be much higher if my clients were in a different line of business.

I thought about going back to Client #2 to tell them i'm open for (limited) business again, but i'm sort of afraid of opening the floodgates and getting more than i can handle, and then having to tell them no again, which i don't want to do. So i think for now i'm content to just do the very occasional work, especially since if i keep it under $600 a year for any one client, i'm not required to report it. Since i made just $540 from Client #2 last year, i'm not expecting a W-2 from them, but i am still waiting for a W-2 from Client #1, who paid me $1,057. It sounds like very little money, but at the same time, with my tight budget and ambitious $ goals, this little bit extra makes a huge difference. I grossed closer to $5,000 in previous years but i won't have the time or energy to try for that with my current job, which as i mentioned, is growing in responsiblity.

This morning's errand run was very satisfying. I filled up the gas tank and noted that my gas station was still offering it for $1.79, up one penny from a week ago.

Then I headed for Macy's, wondering if they'd have any cosmetic products left from the class action settlement lawsuit.I could've stopped there on the way home from work on any weekday, but when it's cold and dark it's very difficult for me to go anywhere but home.

Turns out, they did still have stuff, so i got Clinique Moisture Surge. It comes in such a pretty package. Probably retails for at least $25, ordinarily. Wheeee!

While at Macy's, i felt their $15 gift card burning a hole in my pocket and i knew it expired at the end of the month. I got it in the mail, so it pays to see what they're sending you. There was no minimum purchase required (!) but i felt i should spend a little more by way of a thank you. I looked around, and looked around. Tried on a few sweaters, but nothing struck my fancy. Looked in the petite section for winter pants, but saw nothing i wanted. Browsed in the ear muff section, nothing. Then, finally, to the home goods section and i looked everything in the pots and pans and small appliances section over 3 times over. Everything seemed SO overpriced. I didn't see anything i wanted or needed!!

Still, i was determined had to use that free $15 gift card, so i ended up getting a mid-sized white enamel colander that would be good for rinsing berries/fruit. I also got a chinese wok drainer type utensil that would be good for fishing small pasta out of water.

Funny, the same thing happened to me when i had $20 from a xmas gift return to spend at Kohl's last weekend. Couldn't find anything in the whole store i wanted! Finally bought a new blender to replace one that broke a few years ago.

AFter Macy's, i hit Stop & Shop so i could get a free tote bag (offer expires at the end of the month, just use your Stop & Shop card). And i just bought 2 items that were on sale: 2 half gallons of Tropicana OJ (2 for $5) and 3 loaves of Pepperidge Farm German dark wheat bread at 33% off. These sales repeat at regular intervals, so the trick is buying enough in bulk that you don't need to buy any of the items in between the sales.

Then i went to Xpect Discounts where i bought bananas (.49 a lb) and 4 boxes of hair color, Revlon, at $3.05 each, cheapest around.

I've got my first piece of freelance work for the new year, a bio i have to interview someone for (over the phone) in a few hours. I'm happy becus i'll be able to charge my new, higher 2009 rates! Now that I'm throwing so much money into my 401k, this extra $$ will really make a difference.

Speaking of retirement, i sat down to calculate what % i really am saving now. It's mind-boggling, actually. I am saving a TOTAL of 42% of my gross income. Here's how it breaks down:

1. 15% of 401k ($10,500 annually) PLUS another $5,000, the "catch-up" contribution allowed for those 50 and over. I will also contribute $5,000 for my Roth IRA and the $1,000 extra catchup contribution. PLUS, i'm on fast forward saving taxable money for my emergency fund (in case i lose my job), so that's another $700 a month, or $8,400 annually.

So all of that comes to 42% of my income, if i calculated that right. $21,500 for my IRA and 401k and $8400 for taxable savings = $29,900 from a $70,000 salary. (I haven't included any potential freelance income.)

On top of that, i'm still prepaying my mortgage to the tune of $425 extra a month.

I was wondering what, if anything, i'd have left over at month's end after redirecting so much toward savings. I looked at my January expenses a little early and if it wasn't for about $800 in expenses for my cat (exams, diagnostic tests and meds), i would have had that much extra for discretioanry after paying basic bills. As it stands, i spent about $40 more this month than i earned, so at least now i know i have an approximate $800 monthly cushion beyond standard bills.

So i was able to work at home today, something i do only twice a month; that's our agreement. (Don't ask...)

Today i have a follow-up appointment to go over the results of my physical with my doc; they won't simply mail you the bloodwork results, you have to go in and shell out another $25 co-pay. I HATE that. It means that my annual physical wil always cost $50, not $25.

Well, that's ok, i've fought that battle before and lost, but I'm also waiting for a UPS shipment today from the Texas vet pharmacy that is sending my cat's new meds. They require you to be home to sign for the package. I MUST get that shipment today becus it will be MUCH easier on the cat both in terms of less liquid to get down her throat, no more pills and tuna flavored liquid to boot. Also, i can't work at home for another 2 weeks, so this is the day.

I went on UPS website and they confirm my package is on time and on the truck, but they don't give any indication of WHEN today i'll get it. They deliver until 7 pm.

I'm worried now becus my doc appt is at 4 pm and i don't remember if they have one of those stupid policies of "we bill you $100 or whatever if you fail to cancel an appointment with 24 hours notice."

I still have 3.5 more hours to wait for them, but i just hope murphy's law doesn't kick in.

I also wanted to pick up a free home radon test from the health dept, while supplies last, and their offices close at 4:30 pm. Normally i wouldnt be able to get over there cus i leave for work early; i'm hoping to get the cat's meds very soon, then leave around 3:30 to pick up the radon kit and then head to my doctor's appointment.

Shouldn't this be easier, for gosh sakes?? How many people can afford to just sit around all day waiting for a delivery with nary a care as to their own schedule?

The precious one

It's been a pretty nice weekend, filled with little things i like to do, no particular schedule and a snowstorm this a.m. that kept me inward-focused.

I like to do all my running around on Saturdays, then kick back and relax on Sunday.

So yesterday I did a dump run, went to the bank to deposit a small Pinecone check and got some cash, returned some baby food my cat didn't like at Bg Y for a $1.50 refund (every dollar counts), gassed up the car at the cheap station (it's gone up a bit), hit Kohl's cus i had returned a duplicate set of long john's for Xmas and got a $20 gift card in its place, so since i've been wanting/needing a blender for a while (the last one i ruined when i dropped the plastic container on the floor; it cracked, and that was about 3 years ago...i want my summer fruit drinks!), i bought the Oster blender and with the 15% off coupon they gave me at checkout, it cost just $22, regularly priced at $55 i believe. I really wanted the Oster classic beehive blender, which Kohl's didn't have at the store, so i made myself be frugal and just get what they had.

After that, i hit Shop Rite where they had lots of good buys, including Ronzoni pasta at .58 a pound. Then i went to Costco, only becus i needed milk; i got 2 gallons at $2.59 i think it was and froze one of them in 1/2 gallon containers.

This a.m. i put together the Hoover steam cleaner i bought before Xmas and finally got around to steam cleaning my bedroom oriental carpet, which has been pooped on and thrown up on so many times (by my cat) i've lost track. It seemed to work pretty well and that water was DARK BROWN. I did all the rest of my area rugs, too, except for the wall to wall in the family room. That can wait til spring.

I now am giving the cat 2 different medications. It's really been a challenge giving them to her, whether pills or liquid.

I brought her to the vet yesterday a.m. to get her stitches out, from the biopsy. The good news is that she is responding very well to the prednisone, which the vet said had shrunk her tumor so you could hardly even feel it!! So that means her cancer is lymphoma, becus only lymphoma responds to prednisone. It means she'll be with me a few more months, hopefully, and it's not a matter of weeks. Unfortunately, the prednisone doesn't work indefinitely; i'm not sure why that is, but anyway, my kitty may make it to see spring, as i'd hoped.

The bad news is that the prednisone (1 pill, 2x daily) is making her throw up every day (I didn't know it was the prednisone until the vet told me), so she gave me an anti-vomit med, also to be given 2x daily. I'm giving up on the pills and on MOnday am ordering liquid forms of both meds from a Texas pharmacy; sometimes it takes 3, 4, 5 times to get the pills down her throat. She's very sneaky, holding it in her mouth until i let her go and then she'll spit it out somewhere on the floor.

Administering the liquid med has its own challenges; some ends up on me and some on the cat's neck, but the vet said she would call in a concentrated form that's tuna-flavored, plus the amount of liquid i have to get in her mouth is much less than what i'm doing now.

So now i have to get in the routine of giving her the anti-vomit med 1st thing in the a.m., cus i need to wait 30 minutes before i give her the prednisone and her food, so she won't throw it up.

On weekdays, i'm gonna have to remember to leave only a small amount of food when i leave, rather than "unlimited." Cus i don't want her eating anything after 2 pm or so or she may throw it up. That's what happened yesterday. The vet gave her the 1st dose of the anti-vomit and she was good to all day, but then when she was munching around 4 pm, before i had a chance to give her the 2nd daily dose, she threw it up. Sigh.

When i get home, giving her the anti-vomit med will be the 1st thing i'll have to do, cus she'll be hungry by that time.

This is why i feel a little like my life is on hold, that i don't want to take on anything else in my life right now (like, say, a man) while i'm still taking care of my cat. She's my priority.

After steam-cleaning the rugs, I went out and quickly cleared about an inch or two of new snow off the driveway with the snowblower. I love that thing; boy, buying that was so worth it.

I then made some delicious turkey chili, veering from the recipe a bit to add some leftover organic beef broth (didn't want it to go to waste), some sun-dried tomatoes my sister grew last summer and some small shell macaroni to my standard recipe which used my own summer tomatoes, turkey, 2 onions, kidney beans, chili powder and oregano. It's really quite tasty. All it's missing is some green peppers.

I posted a punched tin pendant lamp, some photography books and an Indian drum on Craig's List. I've posted them before, without success, but i guess it all depends on who's reading the boards. It just takes 1 buyer.

To further motivate myself to save toward my $24,000 emergency fund, i made a little chart for myself which indicates my current balance and then gives the new balance for each new month. I'm not calculating the 4% intereset it'll earn in the online account. Next to each month's new balance i have a little box where i can check off that i contributed what i was supposed to that month.

It's important i do this religiously, becus even with my accelerateed savings plan, it will still take me 2 years and 1 month to reach $24,000. The biggest risk of job loss, i would say, is right now,anytime in 2009. So i really need that money there yesterday, so to speak. By the end of this year, i'll actually only have $14,563 in the account. There's only so much you can do.

This past week they called a meeting and announced layoffs which, when combined with various other cutbacks, equaled a 5% spending cut for the company.

I still have my job, but some of those i knew and worked with lost theirs. You never really have a chance to say goodbye. The way they do it in my company, the individuals who are losing their jobs are given the news, then they are asked to leave the building and schedule a time to return to collect their things, escorted by an HR person. I know they do that to avoid any type of sabotage, but still, it's cold.

I knew, of course, that layoffs were possible, but i didn't think they'd happen so quickly, as they already laid off another group of about a dozen in mid-December. This round came just a month later. What does February bode?

Along with the layoffs, more bad news. All salaries will be frozen for 2009, across the board, no exceptions. I had really been counting on not just a pay raise, but a big one, and i thought i had every chance to get that. Hopes dashed.

As for our 2008 bonuses, which we still haven't received yet, they appear, for the time being, to be intact and unaffected. I'm counting on using that money to fund my 2009 Roth IRA.

And although I'd been also counting on any pay raise to somewhat counteract the increase in 401k money beign withdrawn from my paychecks for the "catch-up contrbutions, i don't intend to stop those catch-up contributions even with no pay raise at all. I had one paycheck so far where the extra $$ was taken out, and it was just $200 less. I'm going to see if i can bite the bullet and just do it.

So all in all, it was one hell of a depressing week. Every time i returned to my desk, i saw my colleague's empty work area and i felt sad, though hugely relieved it wasn't me. Yet.

I know it was my top performance and productivity that saved my job for me. Plus i was being paid $10K less than the guy they let go. I pray that if future cuts come, and they very well might, that i can somehow dodge the bullet again. Damn, if i have to, i'll write 100% of our website content.

So now we're down to just 2 internal writers, me and a young gal in her 20s recently hired. She's a good writer, and quick, like me, but she doesn't have much background in personal finance and so far, she's mostly been writing the kind of stories you could write from your head, without doing any research. That's the easy stuff.

We do use some freelancers plus 4 individuals from a partner company, but they really don't write well and contribute somewhat sporadically. I'm saying all this becus i keep wanting to calculate who would go next in another round of layoffs. I still don't think it would be me but of course relying on any belief of invincibility is a fool's game.

I was in touch with one of the medical writers who was laid off in December and we agreed the 3 of us (her, me and the other medical writer, also laid off) would meet for lunch sometime in February. I'd like to make that a monthly support group, and i will suggest that. Even though i am still employed, I do not at all feel secure, and even though you may look at my financial profile at left and say i have nothing to worry about, well, i worry a great deal. In the event of a layoff, i have no backup spousal income. It's all on me, which is not a nice feeling. There's also my MS, which is always an unpredictable loose cannon.

So whereas since well before the start of this year i was in uber savings mode, now i am hyper-accelerating it, attempting to save the maximum amount from my modest paycheck becus i may need that money to pay essential bills if i lose my job. Before, my goal was to build up my emergency fund to $24,000 with $600 monthly contributions, $300 from each paycheck. I've already decided to increase that to $700 monthly.

My only ongoing expenses now, aside from utilities, the mortgage and stuff like that, are food and gas. And ongoing vet bills; i have to bring her to the vet this a.m. to get her stitches out from the biopsy. But that is it. No other spending except food and gas. Food and gas. Food and gas.

Do i sound a little panicky? I am. And yet my friend H., who is in much worse financial shape than me, still choose to spend what little money she has on lunches and shopping expeditions with her other girlfriend. At the same time, she confides that she really was alarmed at how much she overspent when she went to Florida to visit her granddaughter and see her great-grandkids, and that her 1 day a week job is not generating enough money. I gave her very specific advice on what to do to save money, namely, to increase the deductibles on her car andhomeowners insurance immediately. A no-brainer. Dropping collission would also save her a great deal. Her Toyota RAV 4 is the same age as my car now, 10 years old. When she brought up the subject last night on the phone, i asked her if she'd done those things, and she hadn't. She said she wanted to wait tiil winter was over before dropping the collision, although her very limited driving never causes her to leave our hometown. Well, that's somewhat understandable, but i know she won't do it even when it's spring. It's beyond me why she can't be more efficient in taking action to save herself. It's really beyond me.

Here's the nice job my little snowblower did on my driveway in an earlier storm. Yesterday's storm wasn't quite as bad as they predicted, but i will need to go out and clear maybe 6 inches of snow.

I made a delicious beef stew yesterday. I should be eating leftovers well into the work week.

Sort of as a continuation of my last post, i decided to look up my total annual expenses for the last 5 years (yet another analysis that wouldn't be possible if i hadn't been tracking all my expenses for years), to get a more realistic idea of what my expenses would be in retirement.

Here they are:
2008: $44,141
2007: $42,772
2006: $44,101
2005: $44,929
2004: $43,029

The average is $43,794. However, this includes my regular mortgage payments and my mortgage prepayments, neither of which I'll have when I'm retired. (I should have the mortgage paid off at age 56.)

My prepayments have varied over the years, but using last year as a baseline, if i deduct the prepayments and mortgage payments from my annual expenses, my annual expenses then drop down to just $31,494. Since in retirement i would be withdrawing my living expenses from my IRAs (deferring Social Security til later years), and my taxable IRAs will be considered "income," this means I'd fall within the current 15% federal tax bracket instead of the 25% tax bracket I'm in now. (You'll fall into the 25% tax bracket if your income exceeds $33,950, based on 2009 federal tax rates.)

That's what i was hoping for. A 10% tax break! (yeah, i know taxes will go up in the future, but i have to start planning somewhere)

I also spend a considerable amount each year on home maintenance, a cost i think will be mostly eliminated when i retire since i plan to buy a condo, altho there will be monthly condo fees. But my home improvement/maintenance costs are considerable.

2008: $5,789 (new chimney liner, expanded brick patio, replacement window, 2 trees cut down)
2007: $4,126 (exterior house painting)
2006: no major home improvements due to $7,985 in medical/surgery bills
2005: $8,092 (basement drainage, chimney rebuilt)
2004: $7,996 (curtain drains, wall insulation, garage door)

Although i didn't include it here, i also spent a considerable amount of money on new furniture, a new bed, etc., which i wouldn't anticipate spending so much on in the future.

My goal has also been to ensure i have a more comfortable and worryfree lifestyle in retirement, where i could splurge on travel and other enjoyable activities and be able to pay my healthcare bills. My preference is to scrimp, save and live a frugal lifestyle now, while i'm middle-aged, rather than have to do so in my later years when i'm less physically able.

The whole justification for traditional IRAs has been the assumption that your tax bracket will be lower in retirement, which is when you'd be withdrawing that IRA money and being taxed on it. I was never sure that would definitely be the case with me since i don't have a high income to begin with. That's why i've been contributing to a Roth IRA ever since Roth IRAs were created; you don't get a tax break when you contribute, but you also don't have to pay taxes when you make withdrawals.

I guess you could say i'm sort of hedging my bets by having both traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. I looked into converting some of my traditional IRAS now that their value, thanks to stock market losses, is so low, but i still found myself resisting the idea of having to pay a big tax bill when i made the conversion. So i decided to just leave my traditional IRAs alone and continue building up the Roth IRAs each year.

To minimize my taxes, I will draw down my traditional IRAs before i touch the Roth IRAs. At some point, i'll need to start collecting Social Security payments, but since i plan to semi-retire at age 60, i hope to live on my IRAs for a number of years since for each year you defer collecting Social Security past the standard age of 62, you gain about 8% in payments.

(If you do some quick math and divide the total current value of my IRAs, $244,000, and divide by $32,000, or roughly one year's worth of living expenses, i could live 7 1/2 years on my current IRA savings, which would get me to age 67 1/2 before I'd need Social Security.

My last Social Security statement indicated i could expect to receive $1,950 a month if i started collecting benefits at age 67; that wouldn't be enough to live on, but hey, I've still got a good 11 years to contribute to my IRAs.

I don't make out any of these calcuations to be cast in stone, since there are too many variables that will put them somewhat out of whack. Taxes, as mentioned before, will most assuredly go up in future years. Social Security will likely undergo some restructuring, possibly in the way of lower payments. And of course the direction the stock market takes in the next decade will have a large impact on how much my nestegg grows.

All of this is still quite a few years away, but close enough that i can taste it. I enjoy daydreaming, and planning, for it. Doing so keeps me motivated.

Here's what Mother Nature have wrought after Wednesday's ice storm.


And this...



(I'll be doing cleanup well into the summer, I'm sure. All i have is my trusty, well-used hand saw. I'm afraid of chain saws.)

I was luckily working at home that day. That morning, i got up from my desk to stretch my legs and looked out at the window at the coating of ice on everything outdoors. I saw, high in the branches of the row of white pines that borders the road, a fair amount of smoke, and then sparks and small explosions. I couldn't tell if it was coming from my neighbor's roofline, behind the trees, or the trees themselves. I went out to have a look and realized a tree branch had fallen on the power lines and was actually lying across them, burning.

I called 911 and the fire dept. came and watched it. What could they do, i guess, but call the power company (which i'd already done).

Not 5 minutes after i emailed my office, telling my boss, "I'm praying we don't lose power," I did. That was in the late morning, and so of course i stopped working at the computer.

As the hours wore on, i became really worried that if the power company couldn't restore power soon, my plumbing would be in danger of freezing and i might even have to vacate the house. Not at all what i wanted to do, what with a sick cat and all day continuing to listen to the gunshot-like sound of tree branches falling all around my property. I personally saw 4 instances of falling branches.

I kept calling the power company but they weren't providing estimates of when the power would be restored, probably becus this was a statewide storm and they had their hands full.

I called two different plumbers and the water company for advice on how to drain the pipes to avoid them bursting. I know how to shut the water off and thought i could drain them, but wasn't sure about draining the electric hot water heater tank. Thank god one of the plumbers told me that if it came to that, to be sure to turn the circuit breaker to the hot water heater off at the same time, becus if power was later restored to an empty water tank, it would damage the heating element, which must be submerged in water.

I also needed to figure out how to drain the toilets so the bowls wouldn't break. I lived through a burst plumbing pipe at my old office about 3 years ago when i was alone in the office and the water came rushing under the door from the bathroom and flooded the work area. The water was also frozen solid in the toilet bowl when i arrived at work that a.m. becus a supply line outside had frozen overnight. When heat was restored, the toilet gave off some god awful cracking groaning sounds and i felt like running, to be honest. My boss wasn't there becus he was at his sister-in-law's house, recently purchased but not yet occupied, where the pipes had also burst and caused a mess. It had been an exceptionally cold night.

So anyway, i was worried about all that stuff with my own home, but the more helpful of the 2 plumbers said he'd be inclined to tough out the night and see in the a.m. if i had power yet. It usually takes more than one night for indoor temps to drop below freezing, he said. Temps, thank god, were at 30 all day and not forecast to go lower all night. How unusual, especially in January, right? The next day was supposed to be 30, but then dropping into the 20s the following night.

So all this was going thru my head. I called my friend/neighbor H. and asked if need be, if i could sleep over and bring my cat with me. She said yes, no problem, though i really didn't want to have to move the cat and all that. So i decided to keep monitoring my indoor temps and try getting thru the night.

It got down to about 50. Pretty chilly when you can't do anything but huddle under the bed covers. No watching TV. No working on the computer. No reading. I had just 1 flashlight and a dinner of a can of cold corn, some walnuts and raisins. I didn't want to risk opening the fridge up cus i wanted to save the food if possible.

3 power company trucks arrived around 12:30 a.m. and by 1:30 .m. power was restored. What relief i felt. I've lived thru power outages in the summer months, but when it happens in the winter, it becomes a real risk. I don't even have a fireplace here.

Last night was the 2nd consecutive night the cat didn't poop. The 1st Dulcolax had no effect except to cause her abdonminal pain and attempts, for hours, with nothing coming out.

The vet said i could give her a 2nd pill on Thursday night. I gave her the pill in the a.m. and went to work becus she seemed to have settled down, but it takes 6 to 12 hours to take effect, so you guessed it, another sleepless night. Perhaps becus she was so constipated, the food she'd eaten she threw all up, and she continued to throw up, mostly liquid after that, all night long. Each time i got up and wearily cleaned up the mess, becus i didn't want the liquid seeping through the cracks in the wood floor and possibly causing mold to grow. The last time i got up to clean up another puddle, i glanced at the clock and it was 3 am.

Sometime late last night, i discovered 2 good-sized poops, in different locations in the house. She didn't go in the litterbox becus it was too painful. I was just relieved she FINALLY got relief.

I'm returning the unused baby food to the store and eating the rest of the chicken myself. I am REALLY looking forward to a sound sleep tonight.

At work yesterday, the pressure was suddenly on me to write a product review, pronto. I'd written one for our website 6 months ago, but for some reason it sat around unused, possibly becus the site wasn't yet set up for product reviews. Then on Thursday, several people were hounding me to get the review loaded and published, in a hurry. Since it was so dated, i checked the site that offered the product and found the product had been sold from the company that originally created it and sold it to someone else. The current product is nothing like the one i reviewed; it has different features and a different price structure. Imagine if i'd just published it as i was told.

I told everyone we needed to kill the review, but was then instructed to write another one in a hurry. As a carrot, i think, my boss said i could do it at home. I had wanted him to assign it to some of our freelancers, but it said it would take them too long and i could do it quicker. (There's a downside to being too good at what you do.) But a workday at home is very attractive to me, so i worked at home today.

At lunch, i ran out to pick up the prednisone for my cat at the vet's. I also went food shopping, picking up a half dozen different treats and foods for her, trying to pick those with the highest fiber content so we wouldn't have any more constipation issues. I got her the canned pumpkin, too that i think baselle suggested. I also gassed up the car.

It was just as well i did all those errands cus i'd forgotten that they're forecasting 6 to 12 inches of snow starting tomrrow around midday and ending not til Sunday a.m.

The Farmer's Almanac forecast a very snowy winter for the northeast and they are definitely on target with that.

In other news, i went ahead and directed our HR to deduct the maximum $5,000 401k catch-up contributions (for anyone turning 50 in 2009), spread out among each paycheck this year.

I was worried it would really squeeze me but the catch-ups are too good to pass up. It's an extra $211 out of each paycheck. I noticed in today's paycheck that with the extra contribution, i'm paying $80 less in state and federal taxes.

Yeah, i'm hearing loud and clear that taxes are only going to go up probably becus of the mess our economy is in so whether i end up paying more taxes later becus i'm deferring them now is anyone's guess. Still, it's probably going to be more effective in getting me to save the extra $5k. My goal, as stated in my profile at left, is that when i get to retirement age (60, for me) i would withdraw the standard 4% (assuming i have my goal of $1 million saved), so that's $40,000 a year, which i should be able to live on since my mortgage will be paid off. However, i just checked the 2009 federal tax brackets and i see that the 25% tax bracket, which is the one i'm in now, ranges from $33,950 to $82,250.

If i wanted to be in the 15% tax bracket, i could only withdraw $33,950 to live on, from my IRAs, assuming i wasn't going to tap into Social Security yet. Well, that's just $6,050 less, so maybe i could live on that, too and then only pay 15% taxes instead of 25% taxes. It might just work out.

We're in an ice storm now.





This is the dogwood tree outside my bathroom window. I think my new camera is much more powerful and versatile than my old one. I think i took the first picture using the zoom lens and the 2nd one using the macro function. both came out very nicely.

I had a terrible time with my cat last night. She's been eating well, but was very constipated and uncomfortable. Apparently cooked chicken and baby food is the worst thing you could feed a cat because there is no fiber in the baby food and it just becomes one big hard ball. Tuna depletes the body of Vitamin E and should be avoided as well, but i was desperate to get her to eat something.

The vet said this a.m. i could give her a half of a Dulcolax, but i'm homebound, for the time being, due to the ice storm we're having. I'm hoping to get out in another hour and a half.

She was squatting and straining all around the house last night. She also threw up a whole lot of food (more cooked chicken) and then lots of liquid, so i was worried she'd become dehydrated. Of course she didn't want to eat or drink anything. I dabbed some butter on her mouth so she'd lick it off and maybe smooth her bowel movement. I also used a dropper to put some water in her mouth, again becus of fear of dehydration. I was relieved early this a.m. to see her finally drinking some water and now she is sleeping under the covers, but she still hasn't been able to have a bowel movement. We both had a sleepless night. The Dulcolax should work, as soon as i can get it. It's a good thing i was able to work at home today.

the vet had the results of the biopsy back. It's a very aggressive form of a round cell cancer. She said i could give her prednisone, which, depending on the type of cancer, could extend her life to a few months. If it's lymphoma, which is a cancer of the immune system, it would respond well to the prednisone, which could somewhat shrink the tumor and stimulate her appetite, but if it's another form, it won't, and she'll likely have weeks, not months.

I found another local vet who does house calls who sounded incredibly compassionate over the phone. I will call him when the time comes, and i think between the 2 of these vets, i have my new vet for any future pets i may have. I had never been happy with vets in my immeidate area. They seemed to be more about operating a for profit business than caring for sick animals. I know they need to make a living, but the caring and concern for the animal just didn't seem to be there to the degree i would have liked.

When i have scraps of food left over in winter, i like to put it out to feed the critters, and i've learned that you'll get different takers, depending on when you put the food out.

If i put it out at dusk, deer will come upon it. MIddle of the day, sometimes squirrels will get it first.

I put out a tin of leftover pureed chicken and kibble the cat wouldn't eat as well as a pear core and leftover popcorn from a few weeks ago.

As i sat here reading your blogs, i heard crows cawing outside my window, so i stopped to watch and see what the crow would take first. The first one pecked at the pear core and knocked it out of the dish, but lef it in the snow. Then he took big gobs of the pureed chicken/cat food, which was probably partly frozen since i put it out. Not surprising since crows eat carrion. He flew off and returned a few minutes later with a buddy. The buddy went after the popcorn, managing to get at least 5 kernels in his beak before taking off. The 1st crow took more of the pureed cat food. I find this fascinating.

Today was another quiet day, intentionally so. I walked to the library to return 3 DVDs and then on to the supermarket to pick up 4 jars of baby food, for the cat. (Thanx for that good idea.) Then i washed the salt off my car with a bucket of water. They say you can scratch the car if you use a sponge on it without wetting the whole car down first, but i didn't want to mess with turning on the water in the garage and getting the hose and all, and it's an old car i don't care too much about little scratches.

I have 2 chicken breasts in the oven and will have it for dinner with sweet potato fries and sauteed cabbage.

I've read a good part of the latest Kiplingers, and am currently reading 2 books, I.O.U.S.A. (mostly about the federal deficit) and another called Deep Survival.

I did 2 loads of laundry yesterday and followed up on my promise to friend B. to research more on a possible vacation get-together somewhere between us in PA or upstate NY. I have the package ready to mail tomorrow.

I also stocked up on 2.5 weeks worth of Lean Cuisine workday lunches. Stop & Shop has a sale on them this week for $2 each, even better than the $2.50 each sale they normally have. Full price is about $3.79, i think, and i never buy full price. I plan to return to get more on Thursday, the last day of the sale, when hopefully i will have a little more room in my freezer. Right now, it's jam packed.

Boy, have i not made use of my 2 weeks off over the holidays. I just feel lethargic, depressed, mostly due to worry over my cat. She had the biopsy yesterday. I had a heck of a time getting the bandage off that they wrapped around her leg where they had given the anesthesia. I didn't know she still had it on til i got her home and out of her carrier. She was very unhappy about it. I called the vet and they said probably easier to cut it off rather than try to unwrap it. The cat wouldn't let me do it easily, so i did it little by little and finally got it free. I rewarded her with a catnip pillow i picked up at the vet's and she really seemed to perk up with that.

I asked the vet how successful surgery would be, and she said she'd know better once she gets the biopsy results back and can see what kind of cancer it is. She noted the lump inside her mouth was bigger than when she saw it just a week ago. She said the cat probably wouldn't need painkillers but would be unable to eat before she felt any pain, due to the growth of the tumor.

When i brought her home yesterday she seemed to really chow down on her dry food and i was relieved at that, but later i wondered just how much she'd eaten, as the bowl still seemed to hold the same amount of food. I hand-fed her 3 Greenies this a.m. and pureed some canned chicken with its juice; she lapped a small amount of that. I'm going to try pureeing it even finer at noon and try getting her to eat some more.

I haven't been answering the phone for a while, but last night i called an old friend B., from PA. We used to live together on the Cape when i was in my 20s. She had called me earlier in the weekend in response to a letter i wrote her, which was in response to a letter she wrote me in September.

We talked a long time about our animals and how humanely to end their lives. She's had many cats and dogs.

Anyway, I suggested a get-together; i havent' seen her in at least 17 years! We both have an interest in the Valley Forge, PA area as a meeting place, one becus it's roughly midway between us and two becus we both might consider it as a place to retire to someday. We both also are interested in the historical and cultural interest of the area, too, of course. And i could get a cancellation stamp in my national parks passbook.

So i'll probably do some research; i think i ordered a AAA PA travel guide a year or so ago and it's probably in the attic. Planning a trip like that would be something to look forward to.