Well, yesterday i felt like i won the lottery becus of my spuds, but today i feel pretty poor.

It all started with a routine trip to the Honda dealer for an oil change, plus, I told them about the smell of gasoline I'd been smelling for the past few weeks. Not exhaust, but gasoline.

I waited in their newly remodeled waiting room and nearly fell asleep in the very comfortable armchair. (You now drive your car right in to the largest ever garage I've seen.)

After 2 hours, the guy came out and told me the gasoline smell was a leaking "O" ring underneath the engine (or somewhere, I'm not at all mechanically inclined). He suggested replacing all 4 o-rings when they take the engine out, plus the brakes needed a cleaning, my air filter's dirty and, oh, yes, the axle boot rubber thing is beginning to crack from age and both should be replaced.

The axles could be done "next time," he said, so that's $800 there. The rest of it will be about $600 to $800 as well. My shock was making it difficult to add up the figures in my head.

He said it wasn't safe driving the car with the leaking o ring so they gave me a loaner car to take home, but they don't have the right parts so i won't get the car back until tomorrow afternoon.

When i took the loaner car, he just put paperwork in front of me and said sign here, initial here, initial here. He didn't do a visual inspection of the car with me the way they do at rental car companies. So naturally when i got it home after driving it very carefully (it's been a long time since i drove such a new car), i noticed 2 long scratches on driver's side, back door, and a more serious ding/scratch on passenger side, back door.

It made me nervous that i signed off on paperwork without noting that damage as i sure don't want to get stuck with it. So i called them but couldn't get thru to the guy i dealt with, but the woman i spoke with said she'd let him know and that she "thinks he knows" about that preexisting damage. Let's hope so.

Ralph my Italian builder worked on the sun room from about noon to 7 pm. It's coming along nicely. He told me about his incredibly busy life. All windows and door are in, he's put the exterior siding up on one side (i'll have to prime and paint them to match color of my house) and he started building the benches. One is done, 2 more to go. He picked out a functional, but fairly ugly door lock and knob handle, so luckily he agreed to return it and get one that more matches my other French door handles without any fuss. We also need to find a better looking artificial stone for exterior front, but that's for later, after the benches are done.

I paid him $3,000 thus far, and will pay him the final $2,076 when he's done. It's really hurting my July income and expense statement, and my emergency fund has shrunk to $6,500, but oh well.

As soon as the sun room is paid off, rebuilding my emergency fund to at least $10,000 is my first priority; then i want to restart contributions to my Roth IRA catch-up cus i don't want to lose that opportunity to tax-shelter more money.

I've put my obsession with prepaying my entire mortgage early to the side. If i get a big bonus for 09, i can throw that at it, but otherwise, i'll stay the course. Six years is not a long time to pay it off at my current rate.

This coming week should be easy as i have one work-at-home day and a summer Friday off.

I think every one of the 4 summer Friday's i've had off so far was rainy. I'm itching to dig up the rest of my red potatoes, more beans and do some weeding in there, but today was like a monsoon. Rain, rain, rain.

Yes, I won the Potato Lottery!



The rest of the day's haul!

Potatoes! Alleluia! I am blessed!

I actually returned the potato seed I got from Walmart becus they were shriveled up and wrinkled. I planted them, but then became disgusted at their black, blotchy appearance and convinced myself they were no good.

I was so surprised when healthy green shots sprung up two weeks later.

Then I endured three consecutive weeks of nightly slug picking. They decimated my once healthy plants despite my best efforts.

The tops began dying back a few weeks ago, and becus they never had a chance to flower before the slugs took over, i figured there'd be no tubers.

WRONG! I harvested half my crop, only becus mosquitoes were biting. I dug up 6 lbs. of big, beautiful, red potatoes!!!!

I hereby declare tomorrow Potato Salad Day!

Years ago, I worked at a job with a very long commute. I left the house early and arrived home late. I never had the time or energy to pack my lunches, so 95% of the time, I ate out.. Whether I picked up Chinese at the local take-out or my usual ham-and-cheese sandwich- with-mustard-on-whole-wheat at the upscale deli, my lunches averaged about $7 a day. I'd usually include a soda, and sometimes, as a treat, a small dish of rice pudding.

Those lunches sure added up, though at the time, I was making good money at a stressful job, so I figured I was "entitled."

These days, I rarely eat out. I nearly always bring my lunch. (If I don't, I usually end up at McDonald's so I can order off the dollar menu, no drink. Yeah, I'm cheap that way, but I see nothing wrong with spending thousands on my sunroom conversion. Save on the little stuff, splurge on the big stuff.)

A few years ago, I discovered that Lean Cuisine tasted relatively good, for a frozen meal. But they retail for over $3.50 each. Then I found that Lean Cuisines go on sale, on a regular sale cycle of about every 6 weeks. So by waiting for a sale period, I could stock up on as many Lean Cuisines as my freezer could hold and pay just $2.50 each for them. Invariably, though, I'd run out of Lean Cuisines before the next sale and I'd refuse to buy anymore of them when they weren't on sale.

But I also ate Lean Cuisines so often I got rather tired of them. There were only about 7 or 8 varieties I liked. So then I started alternating the Lean Cuisines with Healthy Choice, which followed sale cycles different from the Lean Cuisines. They were priced about the same, though.

Then, a few months ago, while shopping at Shop Rite, I discovered an even cheaper frozen entrée. Banquet, for $1 each!! The portions of some of their entrees seem a bit smaller, but really, my goal is to fill my belly enough so I don't go off the deep end at work and hit the vending machine.

Granted, I usually end up supplementing whatever frozen entrée I buy with various "snacks" I bring from home, such as a fruit salad or granola bar. And while I like to cook and prefer my own food, I don't need to eat "gourmet" at the office. The idea is to keep from feeling painfully hungry, and if I can save more than 100% on what I used to spend on my lunches, hooray for me!

Thanks for all your feedback on whether i should prepay a portion or all of my $62K mortgage balance.

To recap, it's costing me 6% to finance the mortgage loan while my investments aren't earning close to that, so it would seem to make sense.

What's bugging me is the thought that it wouldn't be wise to cash out taxable mutual funds that mostly contain contributions made during the bull market, since i'd then be taking a big loss on them.

I think it would be wiser to use "new" money that hadn't been invested/purchased at market highs to pay off the mortgage.

If I'd been thinking smart about this earlier, i would have taken my 2008 bonus which i got in Feb 09 and applied that to the mortgage becus it was "new" money and i wouldn't be taking that "loss" on it.

So here's the thing. I only have so much money to go around, and right now my savings goals include the following:
1. an extra $425 in monthly prepayments toward the mortgage
2. maxing out regular and "catch up" contributions for 401k
3. maxing out regular and "catch up" contributions for Roth IRA
4. Building my emergency fund which is now about $6K, altho i could always access those taxable mutual funds in an emergency.

If I don't want to sell taxable mutual funds, I'm thinking outside the box here, maybe it would make sense to scale back my current 401k contributions from 15% to maybe 7%, or at least enough to ensure i get the company match. I think right now my monthly 401k contributions, which include the "catch-up" come to about $800 or $900.

Then i would get more money back in my paycheck, which i would then apply toward the mortgage. Again, the idea is that I make better use of my money by paying off a 6% loan then investing in mutual funds which have mediocre performance at best due to current market conditions.

I guess the only other factor to consider is that i'd be lessening the amount of money that would be growing tax-deferred, which is a valuable thing over time.

I don't have a tax adviser and don't want to pay for one. YOU guys are m y tax advisers!

Any further thoughts on this strategy?

On Saturday, M. and I did an hour-long walk on my town's back roads, on gravel, woodsy roads, past a horse farm, a dairy and vegetable farm and mostly residential neighborhoods.

Afterwards, we went for dinner at a new restaurant in town. M. very generously shared her $50 gift certificate for our meals. She won it at a raffle. The meal with two wild salmon entrees, a glass of wine for her and 2 luscious desserts came to $80! The food was superb and the atmosphere very contemporary Asian. Still, with those $26 salmon entrees, this restaurant will be reserved for special occasions only!

M. also paid me $110 for cat-sitting while she was in the Adirondacks. Thanks, M!

Today's weather is icky, sticky, humid. The worst part of New England summers. The air is Just. Not. Moving. I have 4 fans going in the house, blowing a lot of hot air around, but i don't want mold growing on my furniture. This is the kind of weather that does it.

I made my first of the season pesto sauce today with homegrown basil. I don't like the pignoli nuts, i use walnuts.

While watching my favorite cooking show on TV, Lydia's Italy, I also made a fruit salad for tomorrow and since i harvested a pound of beans Friday and another 3/4 of a pound today, i cooked them all up. (What a sense of deep satisfaction harvesting those beans. It's my Inner Farmer glowing.)

Most will become a baked string bean casserole with those fried onions and Cream of Broccoli soup for tomorrow's dinner. The rest will become another 3 bean salad with kidney beans and chickpeas.

I also picked another cucumber, which makes a total of 5 or 6 so far, i think. I can't keep up eating them, though. Unlike some other vegetables, there's not a lot of things you can do with cucumbers, aside from cold salads.

I finished the latest freelance writing assignment I got on Friday. I picked up a few items at Shop Rite, dropped off some donated books at the library, dropped off old phone books at AT&T place, where a small pile of unwanted phone books was growing on the lawn, filled up my gas tank, filled a prescription for my very first upcoming colonscopy (yahoo!), deposited a check at the bank ATM and returned some items at Home Depot and got some vinyl cement crack repair stuff. I also replenished the hummingbird water which i do twice a week to avoid growth of mold in the sugar water, which could sicken hummers. Oh yeah, i mowed the front and back lawns, too.

I think the only thing i didn't get to do was wash my car and put tinfoil collars on my newest stringbean seedlings to thwart cutworms. I also noticed a flopped over cherry tomato plant that needs staking, but i heard thunder rumble when i was out there so i skipped it.

Talked to my dad and told him i have Lyme. I'm trying to remember to eat a little plain yogurt daily, plus the acidopholus pills that expired several years ago, but i take 4 at a time in the hope there's some bacteria still alive in those capsules.

Thanks for all your comments about paying off my mortgage. I liked the idea of doing it in stages, then reassessing where i stand. If i'd been smart, i would have taken my 2008 annual bonus, which i didn't get til February of this year, and immediately applied it to the mortgage. That way, i wouldn't have to worry about taking a loss on investments made during the bull market.

I've been taking in a little extra cash from freelance work and cat sitting lately, so once i pay the guy off for my sun room, i hope to put $300 or $400 toward my Roth IRA, which is not yet fully funded for 2009.

OK, I'm roughly halfway through a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

My balance is pretty low, about $62,000, and i think that's low enough that it wouldn't make sense to refinance from my current 6% rate, given the closing costs.

I would love to be completely debt-free.

Yesterday, i came upon an academic-type article written by some researchers at Boston College Center for Retirement Studies, or something like that. Here's the link: http://crr.bc.edu/briefs/should_you_carry_a_mortgage_into_retirement_.html

They went into great detail and explanation, but the bottom line of their paper was that, given today's current low interest rates, where the most you're gonna get from, say, a money market account is 2%, it makes sense for most people to pay off their mortgage if their mortgage is more than 2%.

Tax deductions on the interest paid really don't make up for spending thousands extra on interest payments, they concluded.

For example, I'm looking at my currrent amortization table right now. I just sent in my August payment, and of the total $1500 payment ($425 of that is extra prepayment toward principal), $316 was purely interest.

So this loan is costing me (right now) an extra $300 and more in purely interest each month, month after month. In my mind, it's sort of like throwing money away on nothing. I get nothing extra for that money. Yes, it slowly decreases, but still, why not pay it off, save all that $ in interest, when i have the money sitting in various mutual funds that are performing pretty horribly?

If I keep throwing an extra $425 in prepayments toward the mortgage each month, i will still pay it off in 6 more years.

However, if i chose to pay off the whole thing now, or perhaps a big chunk of it now, i could save up to $12K in interest.

The money I would use to pay off all or a portion of the mortgage would come from one of a few taxable mutual fund accounts i have, T. Rowe Price Mid Cap Growth Fund. I've had it for a while, maybe between 8 and 10 years, and according to their standardized annual returns, i've averaged a measly 4% return on that fund now that we've had our stock market downturn.

So, looked at this way, it seems simple that i'd be better to pay off a 6% loan than let the money i'd use for that sit in a fund that's earned me about 4%. I also pay an annual expense charge of 0.83% on that fund.

However, I'd probably take a loss on the withdrawal from that fund. I guess a pretty big loss since as i said, i've had that fund a while and i know most of the contributions i made to it were made during the bull market.

But I'd been wanting to move that $ to another account anyway in my gradual moves toward having only low-cost index funds for investments and simplifying my investments overall.

I think that was the important distinction in the Boston College analysis. They were only assessing if it was worthwhile to pay off a mortgage using money from a money market account, which as you know, won't earn more than 2% these days. In that context, they said, it'd make sense to use MM $ earning 2% to pay off a mortgage, which in my case would provide a guaranteed return of 6% if i paid it off.

I guess that using stock or bond mutual funds is a whole other beast becus you'd have to factor in the loss you'd lock in if you withdrew that $ from investments you made near stock market peak, paying higher prices per share than now. So maybe it doesnt make sense....

UPDATE: My cost basis for these fund shares (CALCULATED 12/08) was $40,83 per share. Current cost basis is $40.85, so assuming not much has changed (???) since Dec 08, it appears I'd break even if i sold them now. Could that be right??

I guess another concern for me is the loss of liquidity if i used a big chunk of $ to pay off the mortgage, particularly in these iffy times of layoffs, etc.

So maybe i wouldn't pay off the whole mortgage, but maybe take the $25,000 i have in that mid-cap growth fund and throw it at the mortgage. I would still have $75,000 in taxable assets if, say, i lost my job and needed cash. Seems more than ample compared to most people, though of course i'm only talking about what would i live on in an emergency situation. The rest of my money is in retirement accounts.

So if I paid off $25,000 now, i could get the bank to give me a new amortization chart. I'm guessing the $25k would condense my mortgage payoff time to maybe 3.5 years, assuming i continue the $425 extra in prepayments.

You might say, why bother going to all this trouble, just to save maybe $6K in interest.....

Hmmm, i don't know. What do you think?

The sooner i can pay off my last remaining debt, the sooner i can fast forward my retirement savings and the sooner i can quit my job and live the life i want to live.

Although you might say i'm just shifting money around, becus the truth is, the $25K sitting in a taxable account now is $ i consider earmarked for retirement. I have no other need for that or any of my other taxable money except i will need to buy a new car in a few years.

And i am already contributing the max to my 401k and IRA, so any additional savings would go back into taxable mutual funds. So all that paying off the balance of my mortgage would do is save $6 to $12K in interest.

One other danger I see in paying off the mortgage entirely, is that while i say now that doing so would free me to throw all savings into retirement, not debt, i may not be quite as diligent about doing so becus it's no longer "forced" savings, like paying a monthly mortgage bill is. After living so frugally for so many years, i could see myself easing up just a bit and perhaps spending some of that newly freed up money on other things. But i'm still pretty disciplined, so i don't think i'd be too bad.

Gee, I may have just talked myself out of paying off my mortgage, but the thought of doing so is still tantalizing. It's hard to let go of. And it's hard to be patient to wait 6 more years when i'm getting so close to the finish line.

Your feedback is welcome!

My contractor has begun the sunroom conversion project. I have mixed feelings about it. He's already got 5 of the 6 windows in, and it definitely has a more room-like feeling to it, whereas before, it was all screens.

Here's what it used to look like:



And here's how it's taking shape:



The room will also have a single French door plus built-in pine benches covered in front with beadboard.

I would have liked bigger windows, but the building code won't let you have windows that go the floor unless you get shatter-resistant glass, which is much more expensive. Thus the need for the bench-height walls. But i'm very happy i thought of having him build in the benches, which the cats can jump on to observe theier world, and i can look for cushions for the tops, too.

One big reason i wanted to enclose it is becus rain and snow would easily come in through the screens, lay on the painted wood floor, and seep through. It wasn't very practical of whoever built it to put in wood floors; if only it had been bluestone or something similar.

I also hope to use the porch a bit longer in fall and spring. Plus, with a regular locking exterior door instead of flimsy screen door, i could let the cats have access to that room during the day while i'm at work.

Unfortunately, the builder already made what I feel was a major and irreversible mistake which i can do nothing about. So while i was very upset yesterday, I have found a measure of "acceptance."

Back in May, when we were going over all the many details of this project, he asked me if i wanted grills on the windows. I said yes, all my other windows have grills and they should match. He asked if i wanted inside-the-glass grills, which have a nice, contemporary look and are much easier to clean than grills on the outside of the glass. I said yes again. I mentioned how birds have crashed into my glass storm doors and died, so i wanted the grills for that reason as well, plus i just feel grills make the windows more cozy looking.

So he installed the first 2 windows earlier this week. When i saw them, they didn't quite look like what i'd imagined, but it wasn't until after Ralph left that it registered that the windows didn't have grills. They also had screens only on the bottom half of each window, whereas I'd wanted full screens, and in fact it said "full screens" on the receipt from the window company.

I was especially upset about the grills, becus it really affects the appearance. I don't often do home renovations of this size, so you want to have everything done just the way you want it.

Ralph had asked me to leave him a check for another $2k since he'd begun the project, which was reasonable, but in my dismay about the grills, i chose not to leave the check cus i thought, although the window company receipt clearly said "No return,s cancellations or returns" who knows? It's at least worth asking Ralph about that possiblity just to cover all the bases.

I had to go to work but i left a longish typed note explaining how disappointed i was about the grills and recalling the conversations we'd had about them. I asked him to please not do further work on the windows until he called me and i left my work number. I was careful not to word the note in an angry or accusatory manner, but i did want to know what happened and what my options might be from here, for instance, perhaps i could get exterior grills after the fact.

So i was surprised and increasingly worried when he didn't call me at work all day. I worried that he was pissed that i was "causing problems" or whatever, and with the memory of my friend H. who years ago hired a builder who wasn't licensed, did work that was not up to code and then abandoned the job, I worried about who i was dealing with. I really don't know him or whether he has a temper. I did know that he'd quoted me a pretty decent price, appeared to do good work, aside from the order snafu and that i needed him to finish the job.

As i drove home, i wondered what i might find. If all his equipment was gone, that would certainly be a bad sign. It occurred to me that he could even take the windows back, including the 2 he installed. I don't know why my mind was imagining all these worst case scenarios, but he hadn't called as i asked and i was wondering if he was angry with me.

When i got home, everything was still there. I got him on the phone. I don't know why he hadn't bothered to call me, but when i asked him what happened, did he remember the conversations we had about the grills, he said he didn't remember. I'm guessing maybe he did but he didn't want to admit to that becus then i'd have more leverage to ask for a discount or something else to make up for that. I had in fact wanted to get him to pay the whole cost of exterior grills, but he said the window place said exterior grills weren't avaiilable for these windows.

But i'd seen the grills listed as "optional" in the catalog so i called the company and they said they were available, but they would have had to have been installed at the factor; they weren't snap-ons. So I was just out of luck there.

So he didn't exactly deny he was to blame, but he didn't admit it either. I didn't see the point of continuing to press the subject since there's nothing that can be done now, so i told him to resume work, which he did today.

It just goes to show, despite your best intentions and thinking you're being careful, someone else working for you can still make a mistake and here's an example where I'm just going to be stuck living with his mistake. His estimate was sort of a bigger picture summary of all the work that was to be done, but i should have seen that grills were not listed on the order form from the window company. I guess i just assumed it was included or that he knew what he was doing. Big sigh.

As for the screens, that was the window company's mistake, so they have ordered full-length screens which Ralph will have to pick up in a few weeks and insert. (At least i got THAT.)


I'm still not sure if i will add a celing fan or not. I thought it would look very nice as the porch/sunroom has a semi-vaulted ceiling, but if i install the ceiling fan, i would have to insulate and enclose the ceiling, which is now exposed. It looks very nice and rustic exposed, but what's the sense of having paid a lot of money for super energy-efficient windows (I'll get about $400 back from the federa tax rebate) if the ceiling is all open? If i don't enclose the ceiling, the little box containing all the wires that you normally don't see on a ceiling fan becus it's inside the ceiling, would be visible and not look very nice. But Ralph warned me insulation would be somewhat minimal, maybe R10, becus he'd need to leave air space so air can flow and not cause moisture problems and in fact, becus i don't have a ridge vent here as i do on the main roof, he'd have to build a sort of cavity at the high end of the ceiling so air had somewhere to go I may not bother.

I'd also thought of a skylight that opened to release the hot air that i know will accumulate even more than it does now, but he said he's got skylights and it actually lets in more heat. Well, i don't need to make any decisions quickly. I can think about it.

I'm happy becus i got more freelance work from the real estate company i've worked for before. This'll be just the 3rd job i've gotten in 2009, a simple editing job. I really don't want to make more than $600 from them this year anyway, so i don't have to report the income. I don't have time or energy to do a whole lot of side work anyway, but i'm happy to do $600 worth. If i just accepted whatever work they gave me, it might amount to $1 or $2,000, so not sure it's worth it doing that much more and then have to pay taxes on it compared to $0 taxes on $600. Maybe that doesn't make sense, i don't know. Monkey Mama?

I finally got my gutter unclogged!!!

Granted, Patrick's price of $90 (I talked him down from $100) was the 2nd highest price i was quoted, from a low of $35 to a high of $145, but i was getting desperate with more rain coming tomorrow and having gone thru SIX guys who were either too expensive, no-shows, etc. (See previous post.)

He installed the gutters 6 years ago, the year he got married. He now has a little girl. So, a lot of changes in his life since i last saw him.

He did a good job, despite the higher price tag. He cleaned all the gutters and used his blower on the downspouts, too. He said the clog in back was caused by a length of MOSS growing in the gutter becus it's shady back there. Go figure. I think i skipped having the gutters cleaned last fall, and i can't remember when i last had them cleaned. I figure this cleaning will get me through fall and winter fine.

He showed up right on time, at 8 am and did the whole thing in about 25 minutes. He simply put a ladder up in front of house and then walked all over the roof to get to the other gutters.

I am SO relieved to have that taken care of.

I felt happy that i was able to reduce the price by $10, simply by saying, "$100? That seems a little high...would you do it for $90?" He replied, "Sure." He mentioned that my roof is in good shape, not slippery, meaning that the grit on it is still intact. What i thought was a few curling shingles on the lower end of the back was not curling due to age but the way he had to fasten the gutters to the roof. He said the gutters should last 20 years. I said, but doesn't the acidity from pine needles cause those little pinholes? That's what happened to me before with my old gutters, but he shook his head.

This is a Nature Conservancy property, but the owner still lives in the house. As a result, the place is only open on Saturdays.

I thoughtmy mom would enjoy it. We both brought our cameras. It was in Litchfieild County, a region known for its beautiful rolling hills and summer homes for some of NY's rich and famous. It's still semi-rural.

It took us extra long to get there, close to an hour, becus a bridge on the road where the gardens were located was out, due to recent heavy rains. Luckily, i had a road map with me and it seemed simple enough to get back to the main road, turn right, then turn right again a few miles up. However, the detour road was gravel and it disintegrated the further we went. It was too late to turn back. It was a bit nerve-racking as i could've gotten stuck in the washed out road. My mother was having coniptions, but anyway, we made it, a little frazzled.

Here are pix of the gardens, really a very small area but packed with goodies.


A formal graden bordered by boxwood.


Exuberantly disheveled.


Blooms abound.


The owner's house in background.


Part of a brick wall with arched passageway and tantalizing views of what lies beyond.


Bubmblebee in thistle.


Colorful blooms to the left and right.


Crocosmia detail.


Meandering path.

When we were leaving, we ran into the woman at the front who took our donations ($3 each) who was there with the owner. We chatted a bit, but what a DOOFUS i was. Why didn't i ask him questions about his gardens, which all occurred to me after we left? Like, is it fenced to keep deer out? How many years did it take you to bring the garden to the current state? Etc. The only thing i asked him was how many times he's had Lyme Disease. (Knock on wood, never, he said.) But what a great opportunity to learn something from someone who's obviously a gardening master, and for some reason, my brain just wasn't working that way. I just said it was "gorgeous." He must've figured we were both non-gardeners.

Speaking of doofuses, "Flavio" the gutter guy never did show up after he came to my house at 9 a.m. to price it. He'd said he'd return at 3 pm to do it. That's when we were leaving for the gardens, but we delayed our departure a bit cus i wanted to see if he'd show, and i felt a little funny not being here when he came since i'd never met him before that day.

I guess it's good we didn't wait too long, cus he didn't show. I can't tell you how exasperating it is to not be able to find a guy to unclog my gutter. I've called 6 people. One quoted me a ridiculous price ($125 to $145), 1 declined after i told him it was 2-story house, 1 was willing but had no way to get his ladder here, which as it turned out was no taller than my ladder, and 1 guy kept promising to come but never showed. Several guys just haven't called me back and i don't know that they will.

My one set of neighbors next door has, for nearly 14 years, made me want to rip my hair out at times with their noisy habits.

We hit an important milestone a few years back when the kids turned 16. Why was that significant? Becus when they started driving motor vehicles, they lost interest in the all terrain vehicle and dirt bikes they'd race around their yard.

However, my glee was short-lived. Now at least one of the 2 boys has a landscaping business. It could've been the father's business, I'm not really sure, but the name of it is emblazoned on the side of their equally loud pick-up truck. I swear they did something to the muffler to make it that way. You can hear the approaching rumble all the way down the street. These kids grew up loving noise.

Anyway, they come and go all day long in between mowing jobs, loading or unloading their commercial mowers onto trailers they haul around with the truck. There's always a lot of noise emanating from them. Sometimes they repair their vehicles well into the night and you have to listen to pneumatic drills or compressors or metal striking metal. There's frequent colorful language that goes along with that too.

So, while once or twice i complained to the cops when the kids were riding their ATVs/dirt bikes, it hadn't occurred to me til very recently that they could be breaking the local zoning ordinance by maintaining a business like that from their residential home.

I was right. I called the zoning enforcement officer, an older, semi-retired tough old cookie of a woman who's been there forever and knows her stuff inside and out.

She seemed sympathetic and was nice enough to call me back at work after she'd followed up on my call. She said it'd be better for her to see for herself the vehicles parked there, and i encouraged her to stop by there, which she did. She then left a message for them on their phone, telling them it was "about their property."

I'm sure that startled them. They recently put a big new addition on their house, doubling the size of their simple ranch into a 2 story home with front porch. Maybe they thought it was an issue with the house.

She said if they didn't call her back Friday, she'd call again Monday, and if she didn't hear from them by then, she'd write them a letter.

She said she's been thru this before and that sometimes people are just stubborn, until they start getting a $100 a day fine.

I'm just guessing here, but the big addition went on not long after one of the kids graduated high school. I wouldn't be surprised if they did so to make it more comfortable for the 2 boys to remain living at home so they could save their money while working and save up for their place, cus my town is too expensive for young people to buy in.

So while i do feel a little bad i could be messing up their plans, i will be overjoyed to have a little peace and quiet around here.

Entertainment
Today was the start of a 4-day weekend for me. It was very humid and hot outside, too hot for a hike, so friend H. and I just hit Trader Joe's and did Chinese for lunch. I also hit Petco and bought a bag of cat food that was on sale and also used a $2 Petco coupon, so i hope i got a deal. This Natural Balance sure is expensive, but nothing but the best for my kitties!

The Cats
I see little signs of progress in Waldo every week. He seems less afraid to sit in the middle of a room instead of skulking around the walls. He will also play with the cat dancer when i flick it up in the air; that used to scare him.

Previously, he would only bat at it if i snaked it across the floor. Now he'll jump up in the air to grab it. So we have our fun, but believe it or not, i still haven't been able to pet him after 2 months.

Gutter Woes
I'm still trying to get my clogged gutter taken care of. The 1 guy Billy who i've used before for handyman stuff kept promising to come, but then never showed up. Hey, stop wasting my time. Don't tell me you're gonna show if you don't. I called 4 other guys today. One was willing to do it but then informed me he had no way of transporting his ladder to my house, and then later, when i called him back and said i could pick him up, he could load his ladder on my kayak rack and i'd drive him to my house (and back) it turned out that his ladder is no taller than mine (20 feet), which is about 5 feet too short to reach the gutter.

I priced aluminium extension ladders. About $250 to $300 for a 30 foot ladder. Not worth it cus i'd rarely use it.

I finally got "Flavio" to come out here tomorrow, but it sounds like he's going to "look at it" and give me a price, which makes me worry he's going to try to make it expensive, cus who would bother to make 2 trips out for such a quickie job.

I live in a very pricey county, but i don't want to pay more than $100 TOPS to have one gutter cleaned. It should actually be no more than say $60, but who knows. Only one of the guys who had an ad in the paper quoted his price, which was $30 an hour with a 2-hour minimum, s0 $60. Declogging my clog will take all of 10 minutes, but the price, i guess, needs to account for the hassle of loading the ladder on a truck and setting it up, etc.

The Garden
This past week i harvested the 1st 2 cucumbers from my garden this year, and tonight i ate the first batch of stringbeans. The funny thing is, i planted both yellow wax beans and green stringbeans in the same vicinity, and i can't tell which these beans were, cus they were a yellowish green! I'm wondering if when the bees pollinated the flowers, it caused a merging of the genes or something. OK by me, still tasted fine.

Lyme Diesase
I pulled a tick off my stomach last weekend. It came off pretty easily so first i thought it might not have been attached, but it left a persistent red mark. I went in to see doc on Monday and get the blood test, but the protocol here is not to wait to get the results back before starting antibiotics. I got the test results back today, and i tested positive for Lyme, so i will continue on the meds for another 2 weeks. I have no symptoms. I hope i'll be ok. And I HAVE to be more careful, but for gosh sake's, i see the doe every day coming down to eat the fallen apples. She doesn't even budge when she sees me.

The Rest of My Neighbors
I get along pretty well with all my other immediate neighbors. The ones who live behind me, the husband, a Brit, is a toy designer and on his weekends spends a great deal of time building some sort of stone and concrete garden with arched bridge, fountain, waterfall, the works.

He wanted to show me last year so badly, and i finally did walk up with him to take a look, but he's been using so much concrete it sort of reminded me of a tacky wedding/catering joint.

Then today i saw a huge concrete truck backing up his long driveway 3 times. His driveway is actually an easement running on my property and its length has got to be at least 300 feet up a hill, with a curve; i couldn't believe the driver felt confident enough to BACK up all that way, especially when the driveway's in such sorry shape. But i still wondered what the heck he's doing now, must be the Taj Mahal or something he's building.

My neighbors who moved here just 3 years ago, and who ALMOST bought my house, have their house up for sale already, at $50k less than they bought it for at market peak in 2007. They can't afford it; she's an artist, he's a commercial photographer who lost his steady gig. They fled Manhattan after 9/11 to New Orleans, then fled New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They're VERY nice people and i'll be sorry to see them go. I helped her do an exhibit at my office, which pays to "rent" the artist's work. She was thrilled.

My neighbors on the other side are an older retired couple and their family has deep roots in this town (including the local cemetery) that date back to 1711. She's active with the local library; he reminds me of someone who'd be in a Norman Rockwell painting. He likes to ride his tractor mower with his Jack Russell Terrier on his lap and a pipe in his mouth. Very friendly.

My neighbors across the street, well, they're on the noisy side, too. They have a few rug rats. They've now on their 5th dog since moving here from Long Island about 4 years ago. I don't know what happened to the others, and i feel sorry for them. Two boxers, a Boston Terrier, a black lab (which they gave to their next door neighbor) and now they have some little barking frenzy toy dog. The're the kind of people who are in the habit of putting the dog outside all the time, so of course, lonely and bored, it barks like crazy. They all did. They never walk it, it just has a good sized yard. They are really not dog people, in my opinion. The husband has a Harley which thankfully he doesn't often take out, but when he does go for a spin, I'm certainly aware of it.

After last weekend's success recaulking the bathtub, this weekend's home imprvoement goal is recaulking the KITCHEN sink. It may be tricker, becus the gap between sink and counter is fairly wide.

Most every weekend, I give myself little home improvmeent "chores" that need to be done. I usually get three-quarters of my list crossed off, but there are often chores that just seem to keep getting tacked on to each successive weekend, and i hate that.

So this wekeend's big accomplishment was recaulking the bathtub. Why does that silicone caulk get all moldy and uncleanable?

I don't know, but it has been at least a few years since i last recaulked it. Actually taking off the old caulk probably took upwards of an hour, while recaulking took all of 10 minutes.

The sound of all that scaraping must've been irresistable to the cats, becus they both peered at me around the bathroom door entry, looking ever so cute.

And, a first for Waldo, his tail was straight up and curled at the tip (a sign, for those non-cat people out there, that he's happy). He had full rein of the house and chose to hang out in the bathroom where i was working. Another first. (or maybe it wasa becus Luther was there, I'm not sure). Then Waldo started rubbing his cheek against the door frame, another good vibes move, but then he actually started trying to rub his cheek against Luther's paw. Luther, who was lying on his side, looked bemused and kept trying to swat Waldo but Waldo kept trying to rub his cheek against Luther's paw. Was that a sign of friendship, or submission?

Cus Luther, IMO still plays too rough with Waldo, but i haven't really been able to do much about that. I'll hear them tussling and then hear Waldo meow or growl in protest, but Luther just ignores that. He's a bigger and heavier cat than Waldo, and i'm afraid that Waldo gets the short end of the stick in these tussles. I have seen Luther actually climb on top of Waldo and then bite him around the face or neck.

But i don't want to yell at Luther cus it will only scare Waldo. If I approach, Waldo gets scared and moves away, which often just gives Luther more opportunity to attack. Waldo will sometimes defend himself, but only in a half-hearted manner, he'll never go overboard with Luther, whereas Luther seems to go all out, even with me when we play, he's overly rough. He doesn't just bite, he bites and twists, and that is painful!

I'm cat-sitting for a friend in town this week. today's day 3 and she'll be back on Friday. I should earn about $120 or so, $ i can certainly use.

I also got some more freelance work, a trifold brochure for a real estate company on a special program they have. That'll be about $250, hooray for me!

I did a fair amount of yardwork yesterday, finished yanking out the Virginia Rose from my front perennnial bed, weeding the bed, mulching and Preening it (Preen is a weed suppressant that lasts about a month. I don't use it often, but i should, since i bought it a few years ago.)

I picked some more blackberries for my breakfast cereal and started enlarging the edging around another front perennial bed. I also mowed, front and back.

The cukes are doing great and starting to vine up the fence, however, they're vining up the outside of the fence and i'm afraid that once the deer (or woodchucks) discover it, it'll be totally exposed. Stringbeans and wax beans also doing great. Flowers have bloomed and tiny stringbeans are beginning to form. Squash and pepper plants look anemic, potato plants may not make it after being ravaged by slugs, despite my nightly hand-picking, for 3 weeks. Small green tomaotoes are forming.

I picked some pretty small garlic heads which need to cure.

The only thing i've been eating regularly from the garden is the red and green lettuce. It's really been producing a lot. And tonight i'm doing a stir fry with a bunch of snap peas, also from the garden.

I'm totally annoyed by no-show Billy, who i've used for years on and off, who said he'd be by sometimes last week to clear my clogged gutter (his brother installed it). He never showed, and now he's not returning my calls. I had talked to him once and he said he was working f/t now cus he couldn't support himself with the handyman stuff, but he was still doing the handymann stuff on the side. I understand how hard it is sometimes to do more work after a full day at your regular job, but he shouldn't have promised me he would if he couldn't do it.

I'm stuck with a gutter that really needs to be declogged. I guess i'll have to call his brother, who will charge twice as much to clear it. I tried going up there myself but my ladder is about 5 feet too short.

My sunroom project is also delayed. At least he called to let me know he couldn't start Monday, needed a few more days to finish up his current job and said hopefully start late this week.

I pulled a tick off my stomach yesterday. It was VERY small. I don't think it was attached yet becus i pulled it off easily, but it left a red mark. Now i have to try to see the doctor on Monday and probably start 3 weeks of antibiotics. Just like that. I had erlichioisis last year and don't want to mess around, much as i hate going on long-term antibiotics. Lyme Disease is rampant around here.

Banks have found yet a new way to fleece its customers ahead of new consumer protection law

Excerpts from LA Times…

"Los Angeles resident Victoria Afonina received a letter from Bank of America the other day informing her that "as a result of a change in our business practices, your annual percentage rate will use a variable rate formula based on the U.S. prime rate."

"If the prime rate changes," it said, "your APR will vary accordingly."

"Chase is also swapping variable rates for cardholders' fixed rates."

"For decades, banks have enjoyed being able to change rates and other conditions at any time for any reason. Now they'll have to work within strict guidelines and give 45 days' notice of any changes."

"Among other rules, the new law requires that banks leave interest rates alone for the first year after a card is issued. The exception is if the card comes with a variable rate."

"The law also prevents banks from raising rates on existing balances. That rule won't apply if you're already under a variable rate before the law takes effect."

Again, I ask, why would ANYONE do business with such sheisters??? You're only giving your business to businesses that rip you off, over and over again.

For the full story from LA Times, see http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus8-2009jul08,0,7497516.column?page=2&vote47927854=1

It was starting to get dark last night around 8:30 pm. I still had the front door open so the cats could enjoy the breeze. Believe it or not, i was already in my "jammies," and laying down on my bed after a long day.

I was startled to hear someone rapping at my front door. I jumped up and looked out the window into the driveway, but saw no car. Great. Rapping again. I put on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt over my tank top to greet a young teen who looked just like Harry Potter's red-headed sidekick in the Harry Potter movies.

He was very polite but I wanted to head him off at the pass, so to speak, so i told him upfront. I thought maybe he was trying to sell magazines for a school fundraiser. "I'm sorry, i can't afford to buy anything right now." He assured me me he wasn't trying to sell me anything.

Then he started talking about global climate change, a cause i'm sympathetic to, but, really, i was just sort of tired and didn't feel like chatting, so again, i cut to the chase. Is there something you want me to sign, i said, motioning to his clipboard. Yes, that's great, he said. But we ask everyone who signs to back that up with a small donation. "I'm sorry, i really can't afford to make a donation right now."

Oh, that's ok, he said, you can still sign. At this point, i was annoyed with him for being a teenager who already learned the salesman's art of not being upfront or direct, and i waved him off.

I felt a little bad, he being just a kid, but really, it's not a great time to be asking for donations door to door, at least, not in my modest neighborhood.

Luther's Tally of Destruction

1. Smashed the glass ice tea pitcher
2. Ripped bottom of shower curtain
3. Shattered a native American Indiana pottery, then knocked it down again as the glue i used to piece it back together again was drying
4. Knocked my digital camera to the floor (it's ok)
5. Bit through the arm of a leather armchair i use at my computer. I used black duct tape to cover up the foam stuffing that was exposed. It'll do.
6. Inserted holes from hanging with his claws to the back door screen, as well as a panel of floor-length bedroom curtains, before i learned to permanently hoist them over the curtain rod.
7. Assorted scratch marks in my wood floors.

Sigh. Will he ever calm down?

I arrived home last night from work around 6:30 pm, my usual time. And as usual, Luther greeted me at the door in his lovey-dovey way. He tripped, er, accompanied me toward the kitchen, where I know h e planned on shepherding me to his food bowl, but to my horror, i saw a glass ice-tea pitcher I'd just bought shattered on the kitchen floor.

I was stunned to think both cats had free access to stomp on glass shards all day long. I quickly scooped Luther up in my arms and locked him in the family room.

then i swept up all the big pieces and vacuumed the area, twice. Then, on my hands and knees i peered around for remnants i missed and did in fact pick up 3 more shards.

This, just after having to shell out a $25 co-pay for the privilege of having a podiatrist poke around in my foot for a mystery irritant. (He didn't feel any glass as he scraped, but whatever it was, he fixed it cus i think my foot's ok now.)

I saw no trails of blood anywhere and neither cat is limping. I can't even examine Waldo's paws; Luther seems fine.

The humidity and dampness of the last few weeks was swept away yesterday, leaving a gorgeous, breezy, sunny and warm day today.

H. and i walked the newly built walking trail at the former state mental hospital, now being renovated and reused by the town.

We had the place to ourselves again.









Other than our walk, here's what i did this weekend:

1. Hit Costco, spent $63
2. Hit Shop Rite, stocked up on frozen fruit bars, ice cream, and an 8 lb. pork shoulder (.99/lb), among other things. What's a single gal doing with an 8-pound pork shoulder? Good question. I liked the price, and hadn't ever tried doing it in the slow cooker, so what the heck. I can freeze some of the leftovers.
3. Cooked up the pork in the slow cooker and had yummy shredded pork with homemade barbecue sauce in a roll, plus made some equally yummy potato salad with my own homegrown chives, plus dill, olive oil, a little mayo, apple cider vinegar....
4. Mowed the front and back lawns.
5. Bought 4 small boxwood (on sale at 30% off) for better defining one of my front yard perennial beds. I ripped out a bunch of Virginia Rose which i'd planted years ago, but the stuff spreads underground and pops up everywhere it's not wanted, and by August the roses are all chewed up and look a sorry sight. So it had to go. (I felt bad cus it's a native plant.) Ripped all that out, quite a job. Expanded the bed so i can more easily plant the 4 boxwood. I also plan to divide some of the sedums and will space them out better, then edge it and mulch. (Pix tomorrow.)
6. Used electric trimmer on some spirea, and tomorrow will do foundation plantings, too.
7. Refreshed the hummingbird sugar water.
8. Gassed up the car at the cheap place, for the week ahead.

Picked some black raspberries which i'll enjoy on my breakfast cereal tomorrow. They're just starting to turn ripe. The real treat will be the Japanese wineberries, which for all intents and purposes taste just like raspberries. They ripen a little later and will provide me with oodles of berries. Think berry smoothies, berries on breakfast cereal, frozen berries, berry crisp.

I used to have 6 apple trees on my property when i bought it, but over the years, some have died and some have gotten diseased and stopped producing apples. There's just one now that does start dropping small green apples right around this time, and of course it's a magnet for the neighborhood deer. There's a large doe who's been coming down every day around dusk. Sometimes she catches me still picking slugs off my potato plants in the garden, but perhaps when i'm hunched over like that, i'm less threatening, cus she stands her ground and munches on those little green apples.

More recently, she's been hitting the apple tree during daylight hours; she's really hooked on this treat. Then today, as i walked to the side of the house to pick some blackberries, i heard a rustling in the brush and i realized the doe was bedding down there so her beloved food source was just steps away.

I hope she doesn't linger long tonight. History tells me this neighborhood will sound like An Afghanistan war zone with all the celebratory (umm, illegal) fireworks.