I'm thrilled with my highway department, Really, I am.

A few weeks back, one of their giant brush-cutting machines mowed down a hosta i have by my mailbox, plus it must've rammed the mailbox becus the horizontal post holding the mailbox was pulled out of the vertical post and was hanging by a few nails.

I called the office, asking for someone to come and repair the damage. And they did, today. But not only did they repair the post, but they gave me a brand-new, gleaming mailbox, and even put my house number on 3 sides, just like I had it before.

That's what I call service!! And I love my new mailbox!

These are the same guys who gave me a break one year when i couldn't find my car registration (it was wedged behind my glove box) when i needed it to renew my annual dump permit.

These are the same guys who let me unload wood stumps that far exceeded the 4" diameter limit for free unloads. (Beyond that, you're supposed to pay.)

And finally, these are the same guys who gave my friend's 90-something-year-old mother a break, looking the other way when she went to the dump...for years...with an expired permit sticker.

It doesn't take much to make my day.

My old mailbox had a dent from years back when some kids swung at it with a baseball bat. I'm sure the highway guys knew it was an old dent, since it was quite rusted. I'm just so tickled to have a new mailbox, as you can see. In fact, i am mailing them a little thank you note today. It just seems that, these days, no one ever gives you a break, or goes beyond what they're supposed to do, and often, they don't even do that.

Sometimes i go a week or so without posting anything here, other times, i feel like writing a lot. Like this weekend. So forgive me for logging my 3rd post this weekend, just feeling talkative, i guess.

I've been feeling broke a lot lately. I guess becus i'm maxing out my 401(k), but i'm feeling bad about temporarily halting my Roth IRA contributions (I have about $1,000 more to contribute for 2009) and i also haven't been making much of a dent in adding to my emergency fund, which will soon be depleted to pay for my sunroom. This inability to save as much as i want to really bothers me a lot.But a monthly net of $3,183 is not a lot to work with after paying the mortgage ($1,500 with prepayment) and everything else. I just hope i can completely fund my 09 IRA this year. I may have to wait and use my bonus, if i get one, in early 2010 to finish funding it. Either that, or just a few more freelance writing assignments this year. I have 2 big clients, and one of them i told a while back i was too busy at my f/t job, becus they would often inundate me with work and i just felt stressed. The other one i've kept on becus they only contact me very irregularly, so workload-wise, i can handle those jobs as they come.

I do have a week of cat-sitting for a friend/neighbor coming up in early July, so that should be worth over $100, which will really help. Will try to contact the focus group lady, altho sometimes with my job it's hard to qualify for a focus group that takes place early evening. Still, it's worth the $100 or so cash they pay you for a few hours of giving your opinion on something.

I'm just griping, i guess. My pay doesn't allow me to do everything my ambitions aim for, no matter how frugally i live.

Frugalness aside, i decided today i'll head over to the Goodwill store; I was just telling Mrs. Pearl i have sadly put on a little weight in thelast year or so and size 8 is a little tough to squeeze into. Tight around the waist, which is where i always put on weight. I'd like to get some nice-fitting capris and/or shorts. There's no way i can visualize paying full price, or even a sales price at Kohl's or Macy's these days.

I also want to drop off a box of stuff to donate at Goodwill. I haven't done that well doing garage sales, and i've posted a few of my items with no luck on craig's list so that's it, i just want to declutter and get rid of it.

After Goodwill, i might as well go to Loew's/Home Depot to return some hardware. Can't remember where i bought them; i suspect Lowe's, so i'll go there first. I won't get much for them, maybe a few dollars at most, but hey, i didn't end up using them so i want my money back.

After that, i'll head to Walmart; running low on the kitties' favorite food, Fancy Feast. Walmart has the lowest price at .50 a can; elsewhere, it's .59 a can. I saw Pet Choice has them on sale if you buy a case, it works out to .42 a can, but it's assorted varieties, and according to a very good article on cat food at consumersearch.com, only the seafood and shrimp fest has no meat by-products or unhelathy additives listed at top of ingredient list.

At Walmart, i also want to see if i can find a leather repair kit; Luther, in his teething days, totally gnawed a hole through the arm of the leather chair i sit on here at my desk. If they don't have a leather repair kit, i'll make do with black duct tape. I'm also looking for a glass ice tea pitcher or carafe WITH LID. Found a very nice one at Target online, but i hate to pay shipping if i don't need to, though i do get a 5% discount with AAA for online Target orders. Still, i think i'll look locally first at walmart and maybe Xpect Discount, which is on the way home; if i don't find anything there, i may end up ordering online.

I use that hard plastic now, but the pitcher's so tall it's hard to get it on the shelf and don't want to readjust the shelves.....

Toying with the idea of trying to make an appointment to see my PCP on Tuesday, which will be a work at home day for me, for him to take a look at my foot and maybe try to dig the glass shard out, or whatever it is i feel in the sole of my foot. I hate to spend $25 for the co-pay, but i don't know that this thing in my foot will go away by itself, and maybe could get worse.

H. and i went to the John Jay Homestead in NY state. John Jay was a Supreme Court justice and governor of NY, and he was a major abolitionist. I thought it might be more crowded on a weekend, but as it turned out, we were the only ones who showed up for the tour. The woman who acted as our tour guide knew EVERYTHING there was to know about John Jay, his descendants and his life. I mean, it was pretty incredible and she made it all very interesting. However, she was so enthusiastic that our 1-hour tour turned into 2 hours. (I guess we got our money's worth...admission was $7).

They didn't allow photography inside the house, so this is all i got:




But, ok, i started losing interest toward the end, partly becus i was starving. I didn't want to be rude, but i stopped asking questions becus i was afraid her longp-winded answers would take another 15 minutes. Obviously, she loved what she did.

It's hard to imagine how people living in the 18th and 19th centuries survived winters with no central heat and no plumbing. Becus heating the water for a bath was so time-consuming and laborious, people didn't bathe much and i guess they didn't have Ban or Right Guard, either. Those shows on Masterpiece Theater make the people living in this period seem so elegant and sophisticated, but imagine how they must have smelled!

Back to 2009. On the way home, we stopped for lunch at Olive Garden, but frankly, i was pretty disappointed. They have that soup and salad combo for $6.95, but just becus it's the weekend, it's $1 more expensive. That kind of annoyed me.

Then we get this anemic-looking iceberg lettuce salad that was really unappetizing. The soup was ok, though overly salted. I figure, these days, if i'm going out to eat, which i rarely do, then i want to make it worth my while, and so many places are offering special "deals," but this one was no biggie and i won't be heading back to OG anytime soon.

I've been walking around for over a month with the odd sensation that there's something in the bottom of my foot. I walk around the house barefoot a lot, and it feels like a little piece of kitty litter, but you can't see anything. If there is something there, the skin healed over it. But i still feel it and it's driving me nuts. I did a while ago drop a glass dish that shattered on my kitchen floor, although i was very careful to sweep it up, i did later step on a few shards. Maybe there's one in my foot. Does it make sense to go to the doctor and have them cut it all up?

My clematis has been in bloom for the past few weeks. Actually, i have 2 of them. The one shown here is lighter in color; the other one is like a grape color. Isn't it spectacular?

I was able to get out of work at 3:30 pm. Just 2 hours early, but what a thrill. I stopped at the garden nursery on the way home and picked up 3 replacement bell peppers (the 3 i have are so ravaged by insects, i don't know if they'll make it), plus an Italian zucchini and a mint plant for my ice tea. 30% off, so just $11.

I was really looking forward to planting them and spending some time on other chores in the garden, but my time was cut short by severe thunderstorms which brought down powerlines all over the state. There were also tornado alerts, unusual for CT, though we had 1 pass thru my town just a mile away from me a few years ago.

Still, i was able to plant everything. I pulled up one of my garlic plants and the bulb was pretty small. I'll give the rest another week, maybe more, before i pull them, too.

My potato plants have been hard hit by slugs, which love the wet weather we've had for nearly 3 week straight. I wish i'd begun picking them off earlier, but it didn't hit me it was slugs until i noticed they were also covering my newly planted marigolds.

Here's how many i pulled off each evening since starting "Slug Patrol" earlier this week. You won't believe it:

Sunday: 50
Monday: 69
Tuesday: 146
Wed. 51
Thursday: 40
Friday: 64

Yep, i pick the slimy things off the plants with my hands and when i've collected as many as i can find, i've dumped them in the sewer. I figure they can't swim. Yeah, i know salt will kill them, but i don't care to watch them turn inside out. It's pretty gross, and of course it's impossible to try to step on one cus they just squish on the side of your shoe.

They definitely are attracted to the pine chip mulch i'm using to hill the potatoes. Elsewhere in the garden, i have less mulch, and i notice, many fewer slugs.

If it ever stops raining (it's forecast for the next 5 days, not all day, but scattered storms daily) i will spread diatomaceous earth and spray with my garlic and onion spray. No use wasting it if rain's forecast, though.

Waldo seems to be all better now, and has been since Wednesday. No more gagging, coughing, snorting or raspy breath. I'm relieved. I'm now allowing him nearly full run of the house (not screened porch yet) and i know he's enjoying exploring beyond 1 room for the first time in his entire life. Yes, he lived in 1 room since kittenhood at the shelter. He was born outside.

The only problem is, the 2 cats wake me up at night running around and chasing each other. The other night it was 3:30 am.

One day, i found Waldo laying on my bed, in the exact spot i always sleep in, curled up next to my pillow, I was so startled as it was the last place i expected to find him. He's been so timid, he hasn't jumped on ANYTHING since i've gotten him, not to look out a window or anything. Nancy at the shelter said "he's really bonding with you." Or my scent, anyway.

More often than not, though, he's been hanging out under my bed. He is also quite interesting in gazing out the front screen door into the yard when i have the door open.

I did my June monthly expenses a few days early and i spent about $500 more than i took in, mainly becus i paid the $1,000 deposit to my builder for the sunroom. (Still, it could've been worse.)

Next week will be a blessedly short 3-day work week, if you include my 1 work at home day and friday off as a holiday.

Tomorrow i'm going to John Jay Homestead in NY. He was a supreme court justice i believe. Will take camera.

Ho hum. This was a 3-day weekend for me and can't say i did a whole lot with it. Partly thanks to mother Nature.

This is not the original, detailed story i read on yahoo news, but for those who were interested in the news about radioactive metals recycled in consumer products, here's the link: http://www.livescience.com/environment/090608-radioactive-metal.html

Dad and K. are coming up for a visit on Wednesday. Always enjoy our visits; it feels like we are trying to make up for many years when i didn't have much of a relationship with him. I cherish our time together now.

He has a lot of squash seedlings he can't use, so he's willing to drive 3 hours to give me some None of my squashes germinated, i think becus it's been too cold and wet. So I'm looking forward to a nice dinner out, on Dad!

K. has a doctor's appointment in the a.m. so they won't be up until 2 pm or so, which works out just fine.

Traded emails back and forth all day yesterday with Nancy from the shelter about Waldo. She said it was possible his throat was irritated from having a tube put down his throat during the dental procedure, but i don't think it would last this long.

I'm wondering if the vet infected him with someting from a sick cat she may have handled before him.

He's sleeping quietly now, but i could still hear some wheezy breathing earlier today. If the vet calls me back (i guess tomorrow) i may need to have her come back to see him, hopefully on Wednesday, my work at home day. Although he's not wheezy all the time.

I've had to keep Luther separated from Waldo to be sure he doesn't catch anything from him if it is an upper respiratory thing, and it's been very hard to do that. They both have been crying and meowing to be with each other. It's harder on Waldo, but what can i do....

Yesterday i was so stir crazy with the weather. I stopped by Helene's and we went for a walk on a new paved trail in town where the former mental hospital campus is. Unfortunately, it started raining and we left the umbrellas in the car, but we enjoyed it anyway. The trail is about 8 feet wide, mostly level and winds through some nice open meadow as well as forest.

Today i got around to painting the wallpaper primer on the bathroom walls. With this dampness, i'll give it all day to dry, so no more progress on that front. The next step will be lightly sanding the trim and then painting it. I'm painting a linen white over royal blue so i guess it may take more than 1 coat. It's for the bathroom cabinet, crown molding and baseboard as well as window trim. Paint is friggin' expensive these days.

The walls look so crappy now, i'm just hoping that all this effort to scrape, sand, prime and then wallpaper over them will hide most if not all their imperfections. I don't think i will ever take on another wallpapering project!

Nothing to eat in the house so finally went to Stop & Shop today and spent about $65 on some good stuff: 4 pints of blueberries ($5), Prego (buy 1 get 1 free, which comes out to $2 a jar), some frozen entrees for workday lunches, apricots (a favorite, but short season), mangoes (yum) and stuff to make a turkey chili today with green pepper, onion, mushrooms and kidney beans.

My mother is a worrywort and often sends me little notes about not consuming too much tuna or watching out for speeding Hummers and the like. Well, i'm just kidding about the latter, but you get the idea.

So when i read a recent Yahoo news story about the latest thing to worry about, my first thought was oh my, i'm not telling mom about this.

For the truly paranoid out there, it was an unbelievable story (I wish i had a link for you) about how third world countries like China and India are recycling radiation-contaminated metals into manufacturing and shippping the stuff out to the US.

Simply buying things made in the USA will not help you avoid the problem. They cited Ecko cooking utensils as having had radiation-contanimnated metals in them. US customs doesn't have the manpower to inspect/detect all incoming shipments. They also mentioned cases where US inspectors did detect prodcuts emitting high radiation levels so they ordered all items returned to China, but then 10 years later, the same parts were found in the US again. Little incentive for other countries to properly dispose of the waste due to cost.

It sounds like a nightmarish scenario, but it was really true.

I'm afraid Waldo has picked up some sort of upper respriatory tract infection. He is breathing very raspy the last few days. At first, i thought he was trying to barf up a hairball, but i think it's mroe than that. I left a message for the vet double-checking that the antibiotic she gave hm during the dental on Tuesday is the longlasting kind. I may have to keep Luther away from him for a few days so he doesn't pick it up too.

Yeterday's accomplishments:
Did a load of laundry and hung dry
Took a 45 minute walk on rural back roads
Scheduled colonscopy consult appt.
Mowed front lawn
Weeded a perennial bed

Waldo is eating (not much) since his dental ordeal. I think he wants to eat, and i've seen him try, but perhaps it feels different without those 7 teeth or doesn't know how to pick up the food now.

I'd been giving him wet food, which the vet had suggested, but while he mostly passed on that, he readily ate moist treats from my hand, and just this a.m. i found he also liked the hard, crunchy treats i gave him. I heard crunching as he chewed, so he must have some molars left to do what he needs to do.

I can see part of his lower gumline exposed now, just on one side, i think becus some of the extracted teeth no longer support his mouth there. The poor guy. It looks a little lopsided, so i guess it must be feeling that way too.

Today's a summer Friday, but a rainy one (again) at that, so my options for R&R are limited. I checked out the movies and didn't even see anything that appealed to me. I can work on the bathroom, but...

Will call optometrist to see if my eyeglasses are in; i really hope they are. A year ago, i picked out the frames I'm wearing now and have always hated them. Warning: Never pick out frames after your eyes have been dilated. At least for me, i really couldn't see well to make an informed decision. So this year, i'm going back to my old frames, which i rather liked. To save on the gas (it's about 20 minute drive 1 way) i don't want to make a special trip out that way for, say, Shop Rite or Costco, unless i can get my glasses at the same time.

I gave my builder a $1,000 deposit for the sunroom. Who knows when he'll start.Total ajob will be just a little over $5,000.

I'm really trying to spend on nothing that's not essential, so i don't have to withdraw more from my emergency fund, but it seems like saving any more that i'm already doing is impossible, even after suspending emergency fund contributions and my IRA contributions.

Today was not a good day for Waldo.

Today was the day I scheduled his tooth extraction. The traveling vet came and i could tell by the way she handled getting him from his cat condo to her fish tank/anesthesia tank that she was very good with cats.

She told me she'd be in her van with him for 45 minutes. 45 minutes passed, and i started getting anxious, wondering why it was taking so long but not wanting to bother her. I started imagining worst case scenarios. After an hour and a half, she emerged with Waldo.

His teeth, she said, were a mess, and full of holes, ie decay. She had to pull 7 of his teeth.

I was really shocked and upset. It had to be done, i guess, and better to get it over with all at once, but my poor little Waldo. I feel terrible for him.

He certainly never let on that he was in any pain, and he must've been in some discomfort. He played with me and Luther every night, with gusto, for the past week. Cats are stoic and won't let on they're in pain instinctively, becus it would invite attack from predators who might sense a weakened animal.

I left Waldo alone back in his room for a few hours so he could wake up fully from the anesthesia quietly and in peace. When i went in to check on him, i had another shock, becus he is breathing through his mouth and his mouth is all bloody.

the vet had said they may bleed a little, that i could offer him wet food tonight, that there should no swelling, that he should feel better tomorrow and to call her if he didn't start eating by tomorrow.

I have to go back to work tomorrow, so i won't know if he's eating until tomorrow night, by which time the vet won't be in the office, so she won't get word from me til Thurs a.m., by which time i'll be back at work. Sigh.

I have had many cats in my life and i don't remember any of them having any dental problems. I just can't believe that a cat just 6.5 years old could have such bad teeth. She said it's partly genetic, and that his brother Scottie, who was adopted by another woman, also had several teeth taken out.

After she left around 3:30 pm, i was feeling beside myself, so got in the car to return 2 cat condos i'd borrowed from Nancy at the shelter for today. I hoped to catch Nancy there so i could vent a little, but they said i'd missed her by about 20 minutes. I talked to her later when i got back home.

Other than that, i did manage to pick up some diatomateous earth, an organic substance (crushed shells) which protect veggie plants from soft-bodies bugs like slugs, of which i have plenty with all this rain, and they're doing a number on just about everything. I poured a protective circle of white dust around everything, but of course i'll have to reapply after it rains 2 days from now.

Since i sprayed the potato plants with my garlic/pepper/onion spray, i haven't seen cucumber beetles on them.

I also picked up another quart of wallpaper primer and a quart of linen white for the trim in the bathroom.

I treated myself to a sub at Subway, $5.30.

Please feel better real soon, Waldo. The vet was able to pet him in his groggy state, and i pet him on the head, too. First time. Soft fur. Please purr.

Peonies in bloom

I actually made some progress on my bathroom wallpapering project yesterday. It's only been sitting there undone for the past year and a half. I had gotten as far as stripping the wallpaper, though bits and pieces of the wallpaper backing remained on the wall after all my scraping. Very laborious and messy.

We've had a long string of rainy, wet sticky days. I don't know what got into me when i haven't felt inclined to touch this project at all, for so long, though it's been driving me nuts to still have it on my hands, but yesterday i finally took the next step: donning a face mask and lightly sanding the walls to smooth out all the rough spots. There's still bits and pieces of the wallpaper backing on there, but i don't think it's coming off now. The wall feels so much smoother when you run your hand over it. It actually is nearly ready for wallpaper primer, but first (and i hope to do this today) I need to pull out a few nails and screw plug things that held some shelves and use filler to fill in some holes.

I have to drive down to the SPCA around mid-day. When i told nancy the vet's idea to carry him in his cat condo to her van where she could gas him in her fish tank setup, nancy didn't like the idea at all. if he escapes, you'll never see him again, she said. she sort of got me worried, and indeed, i think she's right, i'd lose him forever ifhe somehow escaped. So she's letting me borrow a cat condo with entrances on 2 sides; not sure how they did it, but that's what they used to stick him with the needle last time the vet saw him. If she could do that in my office where the cat stays, it would be much safer than taking him outside for anything.

So on the way back from picking that up (and dropping of 2 cases of Friskies cat food, a token thank you for everything they've done for me) i hope to find the local paint store open today so i can pick up a quart of paint for the bathroom trim (shooting for an ivory-ish color to match the wallpaper) and wallpaper primer, a step a lot of people probably skip but it should ensure an even smoother backing for the wallpaper.

I think i picked out a really good paper which will camoflauge the many imperfections of my walls. It's kind of a speckled look, with off whites and tan colors, like something you might see on a countertop.

I think i should paint the trim first, then do the wallpaper, and i'm hoping that once i get into painting, seeing some tangible results will motivate me to KEEP GOING with this project. I'm not sure i'll ever want to wallpaper again. I've done it before, with fairly decent results, but it's such a tedious and time-consuming project, especially for someone who normally can't cut a straight line.

Today i also plan to vaccum my bedroom. I haven't run the vacuum in here since i got Waldo over a month ago and have been able to control cat litter issues with a broom and dustpan, but my bedroom rug is absolutely GRUNGY. Didn't want to alarm little Waldo, but at this point, it's one of those household sounds he's gonna have to get used to at some point, so....

Yesterday I did a load of laundry after hearing "partly sunny" on the weather report. I hung it all on the clothesline but a number of hours later, it began to rain. Sigh. I ended up having to collect it all and dump it in the dryer.

I did manage to finish mowing the lawn yesterday, so that's a good thing.

I read somewhere that a really good conditioner for your hair is olive oil. Although the person who wrote this didn't mention if she meant as a conditioner you rinse out after shampooing or not, but since my hair has gotten very dry and wiry as it's gone gray, i decided to give it a go yesterday. I coated my hands with maybe an eighth of a cup, then ran my hands through my dry hair. It sure made my hair look skanky dirty. But i was home all day so i left it in, then shampooed it out last night. It seems less frizzy today.

When i finally get the bathroom project done, i guess i'm gonna have to spring to have a plumber come over and fix the leaky toilet. It's hard to tell where it's coming from, but i think it's the seal between the tank and the toilet. It's an older toilet. To make it a bit more worthy my while to have him come over, I do have one or two sink faucets that also seap water, i think becus the gasket/seal needs to be replaced. But the toilet is key, becus it's been out of commission (water turned off) for quite some time now and is something of an inconvenience. I guess the $104 i earned freelancing last month can go toward that, although i'm still waiting to be paid for it.

Waldo...

Well, i knew i had to get this taken care of, sooner rather than later, but i'm certainly not looking forward to it. The mobile vet called me back and i was able to schedule Waldo's tooth extraction for this Tuesday. I'll have to take a vacation day.

As you may remember reading, when i got Waldo a month ago, the vet who checked him out said he had an absessed tooth that would need to come out, but to give him a few weeks to settle in (since he is feral).

He's made some nice progress just in the past week, and i'm afraid the procedure is going to set him back quite a bit, but what are you going to do?

He now will eat in front of me, in daylight. As i may have mentioned in last post, he sniffed my hand a few times and we play with the cat dancer together. Last night, i noticed he was defending himself more against Luther's mock attacks, which i think is a good thing. He has made some tentative steps toward exploring the 2nd floor.

The vet and i discussed how she will anesthetize the cat, no small thing since i am not yet able to touch the cat. I told her his safe place is under a cabinet and in a small cat condo, which he'll probably go in when she arrives with her assistant. If she puts something across the opening to the cat condo, she can carry it to her mobile unit/van and sort of tilt him into her fish aquarium-turned-whatever you call it where she can gas-anesthetize him. I am sure this will traumatize him. Sigh. It has to be done.

I forgot to ask the vet about recovery, but at least the shelter volunteer had told me cats recover quickly from tooth extractions. Not the swelling you'd imagine. And the vet said she can give him an injection of antibiotics which works for 2 weeks, so i wouldn't have to worry about putting it in his food all the time as i have been. Kind of a paint cus i have to make sure luther doesnt' eat it.

At least the shelter is paying for all this, which i was told would be about $300. They're paying becus he had the bad tooth when i adopted him. After this, though, i imagine i'll be on my own for any future vet bills.

I am still, for the most part, hoarding my vacation days. With next Tuesday off for Waldo, i think i'll have used 3 and will still have 7 left. Since between my work at home days and summer Fridays, each week til Labor Day is a 4-day workweek for me, i'm in no rush to use them. I do have my brother's wedding in September, so will save some extra days for visiting my dad in NJ around that time and probably go with them to the wedding together since i don't relish finding my way around Chinatown (the bride's family lives there) on my own. So looks like I'll use most of my time off uneventfully, like last year, during September, October and Xmas time. I will use my summer Fridays as mini vacations.

I called Windowrama to see if my sunroom windows and door are in; my builder had said he placed the order, even without me having given him any kind of deposit, which is rather risky if i backed out since i signed no contract either. I was getting impatient waiting for him to start the job and it occurred to me he might have told me he already placed the order when he really didn't, just to avoid my making any more changes to the job. (I only made a few so far, one being the addition of so-called "Clarity" screens which are supposed to be more see-through than regular screens, and to me that was important.) I'm also not crazy about the artificial stone he showed me, which doesn't really match my stone walls around here at all. But i have yet to discuss that part of the job with him. I don't think he's ordered that yet.

So i called Windowrama, since the builder had left me a copy of the order/estimate, so i had the phone #. I wanted to check and see if the order had, in fact, been placed. It was. The door is in (from 1 manufacturer), but not the windows (from another manufacturer), but should be any day now, he said.

Today i'm working from home. I'm planning on hitting our $2 movie house, a short walk for me, to see a movie about immigrants tonight, but i forget the name of it.

I ordered a $37 water filter from Whirlpool for my fridge, which has an in-door water dispenser/ice machine with bad-tasting ice/water, and now i can't seem to pull the old one out. I could've sworn my friend was fooling around with it when i told him i thought the round knob was to remove the grill so you could vacuum under there, before i knew it was where you replace the filter cartridges. I used to be able to move that handle to the left or right, and now i can't move it at all. I thought maybe my friend tightened it, but he doesn't remember doing so.It killed me to have to spend that kind of $$ on a water filter, but the water really does taste bad and i was hoping it would help. Now it's just sitting on my dining room table in the box.

Summer Work Schedule is Hot!

Between my summer Fridays (I work an extra half hour earlier in the a.m. and reduce my lunch hour to 30 minutes to get every other Friday off this summer) and my work at home one day every other week, I'll have 4-day work weeks from now until Labor Day!

Yesterday was my first summer Friday. I had vowed to myself that i was going to do someething "fun" with each and every one, and had planned to visit a historic site with a friend yesterday, but she wasn't able to reschedule her work that day. (It's the only day she works.)

So my backup plan was to do a bike ride by myself, but it was raining. Sigh. So i ended up going to see My Life in Ruins, with that same actres who was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was kind of cute. To get the matinee price of $6, i had to catch the 10:30 am showing!

After that, I hit Trader Joe's and Costco, filled up my gas tank and tried the grilled chicken at KFC for lunch. (It was OK, but it was really the coleslaw i liked alot.)

The rest of the weekend will be Home & Garden Days, mowing the lawn, planting marigolds, etc.

30 Days With Waldo

I've made a lot of progress with Waldo in just this past week. I've had him exactly 30 days today.

For the first time, he emerged from under his hiding place to eat his dinner last night while i was still standing there. I was amazed. Up til then, he'd waiting until it was dark and i had left the room before he'd eat.

He's eating more in general, not just the one evening meal.

He's also cautiously eaten a few snacks i've tossed in his direction.

Even better, the last 3 nights, we've spent a good 15 or 20 minutes playing with the cat dancer. He will paw and pounce on and bite the cat dancer and i even got him to enjoy rolling around in some catnip last night.

He also used the litter box while i was in the room, for the first time while i was there.

He will also groom himself while Lither and I are in the room and sometimes, when he looks at me, he closes his eyes. This is all BIG progress.

He also has made some cautious forays around the room while I'm in it, sticking close to the walls. I can see him eyeing the entryway to the room and it's clear he'd like to explore, but my shelter contact said conventional wisdom is not to let them have run of the house until they bond with you, and we aren't quite there yet.

It's tempting to just let him access my upstairs only, as i have a door at the top of the stairs. I don't know if he'd explore during daylight hours, but i may leave the upstairs closed off during the day, just to see. I decided against doing it last night becus it would probably ensure a sleepless night. Luther would probably shadow and stalk Waldo as Waldo tried to explore. To Luther, who so wants a playmate, it's just a game as he is lord of this house, but Waldo is still new to it.

Waldo's brother, Scottie, was adopted by another woman who said that even after 8 months with Scottie (also feral) she could pet him, but only on his terms.

My Savings is Not So Uber After All

I am coming to the realization that my uber-aggressive savings plan, as detailed at left, is not sustainable. Why, you might wonder, had i not realized this before, especially since i track all my expenses religiously? Well, because I don't list my emergency fund contributions as an expense. I just record my net income and normal expenses (which do inlcude the mortgage prepayments.)

I've only noticed becus the balance in my checking account is getting lower and lower, even as I put continued contributiosn to emergency funds on hold since i was planning on having the sunroom done and needed extra cash for that. But the checking account balance is still slowly receding.

It's obvious to me now, since my normal monthly income from 2 paychecks is just 2,938. That's becus i'm putting 15% + the age 50 catchup in my 401k and fully funding the IRA, plus the IRA catchup. So my net is really small.

My expenses for the month of May, which were pretty typical and pretty basic, came to $2,586. Which leaves me with $352 after paying typical expenses that DON't include that $700 for the emergency fund. Bummer.