Retire@50

Walked with mom for 55 min

Got the $20 Barnes and Noble cards in the mail today for a trial offer. So far this year I've recieved $165 in BN Gift Cards. I'd sure like to continue this trend.

My youngest niece gave me a list of 3 CDs she wants for her bday in September. Your Music had 2 of them so I will get them for $5.99 each. I still think that's such a cool deal and my nices are always wanting CDs.

Found a recipe for faux Febreeze on Recipezaar today.

went into work today for a half day. My boss wanted me to work this evening so left the office early and came back home so I would be available later. Then he postponed it till tomorrow. Oh well, as long as I get my 40+ hours in, that's fine.

Used one of my BOGO coupons from the Entertainment book to get lunch and dinner from Captain Ds. Spent $4.07

Finished reading the library book His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. Sci/Fi. Very good. It about the history period of the war between France and Britian with Napoleon but they have dragons fighting for them in the air. Really good characterizations of both the dragons and their flyers. If you like Anne McCaffrey you will probably like this author. It's a new one for me and she has two more books out that I put on hold at the library.

walked with mom for 55 min

Sold a book at half.com for $1. Postage $1.59

I started to read the library book Not Buying It My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine but quit around page 90. I couldn't stand it any more. About 30% of the book is about her experiences only buying necessities. 70% of the book is American bashing. We're gready, we're fat, we use too much of the world's resources. Big business is too big, the government is bad. Basically every liberal, environmentalist argument you've ever heard, she brings up. If I want to read a book on politics then I will.

She basically complains throughout the entire book and as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't have a lot to complain about. She decided not to spend money on anything except expenses for a year because she had maxed out a couple of credit cards and was working on the third one. She spent over $1000 on Christmas. Well, who made her do that? It must have been those evil stores advertising all those tempting things, it obviously couldn't have been her fault.

Her and her live-in boyfriend are self-employed. Between the two of them they own an apartment in New York city and a cabin and 40 acres in the Vermont woods. They own 3 vehicles and a bunch of sports equipment. She refers to her second best pair of skis. She makes average wages for New Yorkers. So what does she have to complain about?

The thing that made me stop reading in disgust though was when they went to the MOMA in New York. Apparently this museum and many others offer free entrance on certain nights. They decide to take advantage of that for free entertainment. Nothing wrong with that. But then she turns around and complains that because of the evil government budget cuts the MOMA will raise it's entrance fees from $12 to $20.

Ok, first of all, she's not even paying the $12, she's taking advantage of the fact that tax-payers have supported the museum and they offer free nights. If she thinks it's so important to support the museum she could at least pay the $12 entrance fee instead of complaining that they have to raise the fee to $20, which she won't be paying either.

Everything is the fault of big business, or government, or American selfishness.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I hate the blame it on forces beyond our control attitude.

walked with mom for 55 min

Sent a check to the mortgage company for $4000 towards the principle. Used the $1000 I would normally send each month, plus my 3rd paycheck plus a few hundred dollars that weren't being used anywhere else.

I plan to start putting my monthly savings towards other goals for awhile so this will be the last check to them for several months. I'd like to add about $2000 more if I can by the end of the year. Since I'll be getting some money back in paycheck for the 401K payments I was making, maybe I'll use that money.

Finished reading the library book Kill Me by Stephen White. Mystery. Very Good. A good story about when is life not worth living.

Didn't get to walk tonight because of a huge rainstorm with lightening and hell. Even though I missed the walk I love rainstorms. We really need it too. It's been trying to rain for over a week. It gets cloudy in the afternoon and then it all blows over, leaving maybe a 2 min sprinkle behind and most day's leaving nothing.

Went to Barnes and Noble this morning. Spent $9.07 on a book and the Denver Post. Used a free gift card. The Post increased it's price by 50%, went from $1 to $1.50 I'll still buy it since they have better coupons than the local paper and my mom gives me those for free.

Went to Best Buy and bought black ink for Father's day. Spent $22.51. Had a $15 rewards gc.

Went to Longs and spent $23.56. $5.99 for mascara that will be free after rebate and will be given to my niece for a belated bday gift. Also bought both nieces earrings and spent $14.50. Spent $1.44 on stuff for me.

Met my parents at Ruby Tuesdays for lunch. Spent $9.78.

On the way home stopped at King Soopers and spent $2.02 for this weeks groceries.

Last stop was the library where I picked up my holds.

Finished reading the library book Give It Up My Year of Living Better with Less by Mary Carlogmagno. Saving. Ok. The author gave up one thing each month for a month, but then after the month she bought/did it again so I don't really see the point. She gave up things like drinking, swearing, taxis, elevators, chocolate, coffee etc.

To me saving money is not about depriving myself, it's about defining myself. For example, what are the things I care about? What are the things I don't care about? I'll conserve spending in the areas I don't care about to be able to spend more in the areas I do care about. I'm not going to cut all the things that give me pleasure, just to save money.

My number one care about item is retiring, so that gets the most attention and I'm willing to give up a lot of other things that I don't care about that much to meet that goal.

Another care about item is reading. However over the years I've gradually spent less and less on reading as I've found more books at the library and as I've pared down which books I need to own and reread over and over and which books I'm content with just reading.

Utilities are another area I don't care about much. I'm willing to dress more warmly in the winter and lower the thermestat, but I'm not willing to cut short hot showers. I love taking long hot showers.

Another example, is oatmeal. I want old-fashioned oats. I don't particulary care what brand they are and the cheapest ones taste just the same to me as the expensive ones. On the other hand I want Jif Peanut butter, which is more expensive than the store brand, but tastes so much better that the extra price it worth it to me. Although I will stock up when it's on sale so I don't always pay full price.

It's a learning with adjustments occurring constantly, things that used to matter, will one day only get an 'eh' that's not important. It's a ongoing process of defining who I am and what matters to me. It's a series of tradeoffs and as I get older the things I don't care about spending money on gets bigger until more and more of my spending goes to fewer categories.

walked with mom for 30 min. It was dark by the time we got back to her house, but it was nice to sneak in at least 30 min.

went to the bank and deposited $75.49 in rebate checks and $15 in loose change. Money to add to my extra fund. My extra fund money is for something fun or special. I recently wiped it out for my Canadian vacation. I'm not sure what I'm saving for now. My short term savings fund is going for new carpet. I still want a good desk/table for my dining room to do bigger jigsaw puzzles on, so maybe I'll earmark it for that.

Went to Big Lots after the bank. Love that store. Go a metal ladle that I've wanted for a long time, but didn't want to spend much for. Paid $1. Got some food products too. Total $5.50. My mother collects strawberry stuff for her kitchen. Saw a really pretty strawberry rug for $5 and 2 strawberry hot pads to put under dishes for $2. Got her both of those and she paid me back. I told her if she didn't like them I would return them, but my experience with Big Lots is if you don't buy it when you see it, too bad, it will be gone.

Next I met my friend at the theater. I haven't seen her since February and we usually get together at least once a month so this was really great. She's adopting a 14 year old niece and it's taking a lot of her time assimilating a teen-ager into the family. She's the second person who's asked me if I've lost weight, so even though I haven't lost alot I must be getting firmer or something for it to show.

We saw the DaVinci code. Very good. Spent $5.50

We went to lunch at Rudy's Diner afterwards. I've never been there before, really cool place and the cheeseburger was great. Spent $9.50

Then we wandered around Target for awhile. I got a new printer for my dad for Father's day on sale for $25.00. I need to get something else for him too, maybe one of the ink cartriges. Ink is ridiculous it's cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy the ink cartriges. The color cartridge was $37.

I also got two Mossimo (sp) t-shirts, which I really like since they print the tag on the shirt instead of having it rub your neck. I always cut tabs off my shirts since I can't stand that neck rub thing. $12 each

I got 5 lbs of walnuts at $4.50/lb, best price I've found and I go through a 1/2 lb a week between breakfast and snacking. I'm not on that side of town that often so I stocked up.

Also bought a book. Total spent $78.83

Got a sample of Olay Complete Defense moisturizer.

Finished reading the library book The Sinmplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen. Non-Fiction. Ok, basically you get everything you're going to get out of the book in the first 30 pages.

Had to turn the A/C on today for the first time this year. It got up to 88 and I couldn't stand it anymore. Makes me too tired to think and that's not good when you have as many things to keep track of as I do while working.

Sent the email to close out my Virtual Bank Account. Need to remember to check that they put the money in my checking account. I opened it for the $20 bonus, but tired of having to check multiple accounts every month for my net worth updates. Plus they don't pay as much as HSBC.

Got a Swiffer Duster sample in the mail.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Hades Factor by Robert Lublum. Thriller. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min

My company merged with another company the first of the year. Now they are trying to merge the 401Ks so the rules are changing, some are better and some aren't.

Better

The new company matches up to 6%, plus if they do well they will kick in up to another 3% first quarter next year. The old company matched 5%.

Worse

The new company matches 50% with company stock and 50% cash. I don't like money going into company stock, especially when you can't move it when you want to. Has to stay there for 3 years before you can sell it. Old company was 100% cash.

Worse

The new company only allows you to contribute up to 16% of salary, the old company allowed up to 20%. I won't be able to reach the max amount of $15,000 this year because of the difference and will have to pay taxes on over $2000 that I could have contributed costing me $600+ in taxes, that's a lot of money that could be invested and earning me money.

Worse

Moving from Merrill Lynch to Fidelity. Have to research all new funds and find out what's compatible with my investment strategy.

I don't like these kinds of changes, but not much I can do about it. Just have to pick my new funds and hope they do ok.

Finished reading my book A Secret Atlas by Michael A. Stackpole. Sci/Fi. Good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got a CC rebate check for $50.29 in the mail.

Gave my parents one of my 5 free coke coupons. I'm going to give my brother and sister one too, and probably to a friend of mine, I need to find out if she drinks coke first. There's no way I can drink that much coke.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Missing Persons by Stephen White. Mystery. Good.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went into the office today. Stopped at Walgreens and spent $2.11. I got 2 bottles of Nature Made Potassium Gluconate 100 Ct for free. They had a buy one get one free sale and I had the $5 coupon and they were $4.49 so both bottles were free. I take this to help with my blood pressure and to relieve the pain in my legs that the blood pressure medicine seems to cause.

Got gas after work. Had a .10 off deal with King Soopers so spent 2.59/gal. Total = 24.42

Had a coupon for a Sonic chicken strip dinner for $3.99 so got that and a coney dog for lunch tomorrow. Spent $8.67

I checked on the magazines I order in April. According the website I should get the Kiplingers on 7/8 and the Family Circle on 7/11. So any day now.

Had a bunch of pennies and nickles in a jar that I gave to my Dad to take to his bank since they don't charge for counting coins. Got $6.61 back. Goes to my Extra Fund. My bank charges 2% for loose coins. I wrap quarters and dimes and take them in one roll at a time and they don't charge for that.

Got a sample of Cover Girl Age-Defying makeup sample in the mail. I don't wear makeup so I gave it to my mom.

walked with mom for 55 min

I got another coca-cola coupon in the mail today. I guess I won 8 times instead of 7, I must have lost track.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts. Romance. Very Good.

Went to King Soopers for groceries today. Used one of my Coca-Cola coupons. The cashier only took off the cost of one bottle of coke, so I told him the coupon was for all 5 bottles. He looks at it and says, "Where did you get this coupon?" Like I was manufacturing them or something. So I told him and said he'd probably be seeing a lot more of them. He goes, "I hope not". Geeze, it's not like the money comes out of his pocket, if the manufacture is paying for it, it's no skin off of his nose.

I spent $43.91 on groceries and $14.80 on books, magazines and newspapers. I got 5 free bottles of coke. a free 32 oz ottle of Wisk Dual Action detergent and a free newspaper. According to the recieopt I saved 41%

Got my haircut. Had a $2 coupon. Spent $12 with tip.

I've been using the Purity moisturizer sample that I got from the Hampton Inn in Vancouver. I really like it. I went on line to find it today and it's $32 for 16 oz bottle. That's pretty expensive. I usually spent between $4 and $6 for moisturizers, using sales and coupons. So I guess after my samples are gone that's it for that product. It's not 4 times as good as my regular moisturizers.

Finished reading the library book Second Sight by Amanda Quick. Romance. Very good

walked with mom for 55 min

Got the last 4 of my 7 Coca-Cola coupons in the mail today.

Went through my coupons and weeded out the expired ones today. Made a grocery list for tomorrow, it's pretty big.

Finished reading the library book Crazy Wild by Tara Janzen. Romance. Good

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to Village Inn for dinner, spent $9

Got the $5 Nature Made coupon in the mail today, that was really fast.

Signed up for a $1 trial with Shoppers Advantage through My Points. Get 200 points and $20 in Barnes and Noble gift cards. Put a note in my calendar to cancel in 25 days.

Had to work from 10:00 to 12:30 last night so got off work early today. I have to work late tomorrow night too.

Finished reading the library book Fever by Christine Feehan. Romance. Very good.

Started reading a library book called The Simplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen. It has 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More. It tells you how to Deal with Bosses who don't get it, delete 75% of your emails, Communicate anything to anyone, clairfy your goals more quickly, decide: stay or go? etc. Looks very interesting. I'm already 3 times as productive as anyone else in my group, but it never hurts to be even more productive. The one I need the most is how to Communicate anything to anyone, since I have to work with so many people who don't speak English very well.

walked with mom for 55 min

Sold 4 books at half.com today. All from the same series. Spent $4.14 for postage. Had to mail two packages since I didn't have a mailer big enough for all 4 books.

Forgot to do the May Goals update yesterday so I'll do it today

Goals for May were:

1. Walk at least 25 days for 35 min
Done

2. Pre-pay mortgage - $1500
Done

3. Spend $450 or less on household items
I think so, but lost the form I was keeping the data on and don't feel like going back through all reciepts to redo it.

June Goals are:

1. Walk at least 25 days for 35 min

2. Pre-pay mortgage - $4000 this will meet my goal for the year of $12,000. Will use all of my 3rd paycheck to help meet this goal.

3. Spend $450 or less on household items.

4. Close the Virtual bank account that I opened for a bonus

5. Get tires replaced

6. Set up new budget

walked with mom for 55 min

One of the things I really miss about Canada was how late it stayed light out. It was light till after 10:00pm. It gets dark here around 8:20pm.

Lot's of thunder and lightening right now. I love to watch lightening storms. But I've had a massive sinus headache all day because of the clouds. Did watch the thunderbirds both yesterday and today. I get a birdseye view from my office window. They practiced yesterday and it was better because there were fewer clouds. Today was very cloudy and you could hear them, but couldn't see them very well.

Did some research on tires, but I'm confused. Tomorrow I will bring up the sites and ask my Dad to help me figure out what kind I need. I have the sizes, but there a jillion different kinds. If I use my Discover card and get them at Firestone I can save an extra 5% this month.

Sent off for my May Walgreens rebate. Only $3 this month. Between working and vacation I didn't get in town very often to buy the rebate items.

I have my nieces signed up for the Red Robin bday club and got an email for the oldest to get a free gourmet burger. I printed it out and my parents are babysitting them today and tomorrow so they took them in town for lunch and got the free burger for her.

Finished reading my book Unfinished Business by Barbara Seranella.

walked with mom for 55 min

I got another of the coca-cola coupons today. 5 2-liter bottles of coke product free.

I hit a huge pothole last week and my car has been making funny noises since. The tire that hit was really low today, so it's a slow leak at the very least. My dad has a compressor so he filled it up and checked for damage. He thinks I broke a belt in the tire and that's why it's driving bad. Both front tires would have needed to be replaced by fall. I've had them for 4 years. It's approximately $105 per tire. I plan to do some research on prices and take it in soon to get them replaced. Hopefully that will take care of the whole problem. The money will come from my maintenance/repair/replace fund. Which only has $200 in it. I may need to take some from my short-term goals fund too. June is a 3 paycheck month, so that would cover it also, although I usually try to save most of the 3rd paychecks.

walked with mom for 55 min

When we returned our Avis rental to the Edmonton airport in Canada we were told we owed an additional $53.50 for a one-way fee. It stinks when companies add charges on after you've paid and used something and there's no time to dispute it since you've already paid for the use. Anyways, since we had to catch a plane I figured there was nothing I could do about it.

Today I emailed the travel agency that booked the rental car for us and complained about not letting us know the cost up front since it would have affected our decision to rent with Avis. I told them we wouldn't book with Avis ever again. They offered to refund the money and I took them up on it. I'm still not going to book with Avis again, but I would use the Travel Agency again.

I got a lot of sample products from each of the hotels we stayed in. I've never had moisturizer samples in a hotel before, but the first one we stayed in, the Hampton Inn, had Purity basic moisturizer samples. I started using it today and really like it, it's a very light moisturizer. I'll have to find out where they are sold.

All of the hotels we stayed in were clean and nice. The Ptarmagan Inn in Banff was probably the least nice. It was really old. No microwave or fridge or A/C. They had portable fans in the room. At Lake Louise we stayed at a 5 star hotel that was a suite.

It had a living room with a fireplace and dining area, plus a separate bedroom with a king size bed and a bathroom with a separate shower stall and a jacuzzi tub. I probably spent a half hour in that tub that night. I was so stiff from sitting on the train for two days it felt wonderful.

Unfortunately, even though we specified non-smoking rooms, my parents room smelled of smoke and since my mom is allergic to smoke they had to move them. The only other room they had available was a small room on the 5th floor in the back with no view. It was a better room than any other room we had on the trip, but compared to the first one it was a real let down. My dad wasn't very happy about that. The room they were originally given was supposed to be a non-smoking room, but someone obviously didn't care. It was very unfortunate, but nothing we could do about it since the hotel was full.

Finished reading the library book Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher. Sci/Fi. Very Good.

My mom has a blister on the bottom of her foot so we didn't walk today.

Went to Chili's for lunch. They have a deal if you buy a $25 gift card they give you $5 extra. So I bought $50 in gift cards and lunch was free with the $10 they gave me. The Chili's is new to our little town. We're getting a lot of new stores right now. Kohl's and WalMart. I'm waiting for my credit union to move here, which is supposed to happen next year and I'm also waiting for Walgreens and Wendy's. Both are supposed to be sometime this year.

Went to my sister's for dinner. We celebrated my nieces 15th bday. They are going to be on vacation in the East on the actual day, so we had it early. I gave her half of her present. The other half is to take her to Clinique to get a makeover and I'll buy her foundation and blush. That's expensive stuff, but at her age name brand is important, plus the experience will be fun. I'll do that when they get back from their vacation and when I see that Clinique is offering a gift with purchase.

I took some books for her to read over the summer too. As I was going through my books I kept saying maybe in a couple of years. Most of my books have adult themes that aren't suitable for them yet. I did find a few for her to read. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was one of them. I love that book. I hope she likes it too.

I need to do two things with the younger niece to catch up to the older one. She was grounded and I couldn't do one of the things I had planned and I got out of sync. I try to take them one at a time and do something special at least once a month.

I got groceries and spent around $17. I don't have the exact figures since the reciept is downstairs.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got her signed up with the Nature Made program. You get a $5 coupon for the first 500 points, but for the second 500 points you get a $7 coupon. She had enough points for $12 in coupons.

Got Nexus shampoo and conditioner samples in the mail.

Watched the library DVD Mr and Mrs Smith. Very good. I thought it was really funny. Gave it to my parents to watch with strick instructions to return it on time for me to give back to the library. My mom wanted to know if I could get other DVDs from the libary and I told her I could so she had me reserve While you were sleeping. An old Sandra Bullock movie. I'm gradually bringing them into the computer age

Finished reading my book The Average Family's Guide To Financial Freedom. Finance. Very good.

walked with mom for 55 min. Then stayed for taco salad and card games.

Got off work an hour early for the weekend. They let everyone go early.

One of our contractors is leaving and he called to tell me he is taking all my ideas with him to implement at his next job. Nice complement. I'm the one who has put most of our test practices in place.

I got 2 of my Coca-Cola coupons today to get 5 2-liter bottles free. Expect 5 more.

My Points sent me an email about joining Nature Made wellness membership. I buy Nature Made vitamins so I joined and entered all the codes from my existing bottles and made enough to qualify for a $5 coupon (500 points), which they will send me in the mail. Plus I still have 120 points towards the next coupon. They also have printable coupons on the website.

I need to tell my mom about this and see if she wants to join, since she buys the really expensive bottles of vitamins, $30-40.

If you don't have a My Points membership you can go to

walked with mom for 55 min

My eyes are so tired today, probably from going back to looking at a computer screen 8 - 10 hours a day again.

I had 289 emails to wade through. Took 3 hours, but it was a pretty good first day back.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Sci/Fi. Excellent.

walked with mom for 55 min

Got back from my trip at 11:45 last night. Long day of traveling. Left from Edmonton, Canada at 4:35 pm. Went to LA and from there to CO. Pretty round-about way to travel, but that's the way the tickets worked out.

I really enjoyed the train ride through the Canadian Rockies. The food was fantastic. It was all chilled but so good. We saw bears, a wolf, (which was my favorite), elk, deer, a puma, 2 bald eagles and an osprey. Unfortunately our second day on the train we were stuck on the tracks for 5 hours while we waited for them to fix the roads, which had washed out from so much snow melting. That meant we didn't get to Banff till almost midnight. We would really liked to have had some time shopping there. It looked like there were a lot of really cute gift stores.

I won a poetry contest on the train. We were asked to write a poem about Salmon. We read our poems to each other and then everyone voted on the winner. Mine won. So I was inducted into the Order of the Salmon and given a Salmon pin. I didn't know I could write poetry. The salmon begins his run blue/gray in color and after they spawn they turn red and then drown.

Here's my poem:

The salmon starts out blue and gray
Just another working day
Swimming upstream night and day
To reach the top and earn his pay
Then before his blushes can fade away
He reminisces on his busy day
And as his life slips away
You can hear him sigh and sadly say
Darn! Retirement was just 2 days away.

The Edmonton Mall was a big disappointment. It was huge and there were a lot of stores, but nothing that we don't have here. No really interesting gift stores. And it was loud and crowded and just overwhelming. But you never know how something will turn out till you try it.

I spent just about $100 in cash on souvenirs and gifts. I spent around $150 on the CC, $70 of which was for a meal for all 3 of us. And my parents put all the other meals on their CC and I'll get an accounting of that sometime next month and pay them back then. I'm estimating around $150 for meals.

So I think I did really well on the spending part. I got myself some really beautiful jade earrings. Two pairs, one a pair is hearts and one pair is Orcas. Gorgeous. I like to get earrings as souvenirs, because it's something I can use for years and remember where I got them from. I still have a pair of jade maple leaf earrings that I got last time I went to Canada 7 - 8 years ago.

Slept in today, it was really great to be back in my own bed. Did laundry, unpacked, got groceries, caught up on personal email, relaxed. Had a ton of mail but only about 6 pieces were worth anything. I got my $25 Great Fun/Buy.com rebate and a sample of Rolaids.

The day before I left for Canada I sold a $20 book on half.com and I sold another one today for $3.

Spent $1.59 at the post office and $40.94 at King Soopers for groceries.

While on the trip I read the following books:

Master of Wolves by Angela Knight. Romance. Very good

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. Supernatural. Very good

Micah by Laurell K. Hamilton. Supernatural/Romance. Excellent

Dark Demon by Christine Feehan. Supernatural/Romance. Excellent.

walked with mom for 55 min.

I'm all packed. I've cleaned the house and did a load of laundry today. Now I just need to fall asleep tonight. I never sleep before a big day, but I hope I get some. Have to get up at 6 in the morning tomorrow; about an hour and a half before my regular wake-up time.

I won't be blogging again until the 24th.

Finished reading my book Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop. Sci/Fi-Romance. Excellent book. I can't describe how beautiful this woman writes. The emotions of the characters are so strong. I love her Black Jewels trilogy. I can't put these books down. Even the second time through.

walked with mom 55 min

The day went surprisingly fast for my last work day before my vacation. I was expecting it to drag. We actually leave on Wednesday but I took tomorrow off to get the house and laundry done and pack.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Trophies and Dead Things by Marcia Muller. Mystery. Good.

walked with mom for 55 min.

Spent 1.78 for a newspaper and 3 bananas at Safeway. Since I'm only going to be home for 2 days this week, I'm not buying any groceries.

Finished reading the library book Sebastian by Anne Bishop. Sci/Fi. Excellent book. Love this writer. Very emotional writing.

walked with mom for 55 minutes

Gave her her mother's day present. 3 strawberry glasses, with leomade and cookies plus the Chuck Norris biography she asked for.

Went to Taco Bell for lunch and dinner. Spent $8.63

Got a free Schick Quatro razor and travel case in the mail.

Finished reading the library book What Price Love? by Stephanie Laurens. Romance. Very Good.

I'm reading The Average Family's Guide to Finiancial Freedom by Bill and Mary Toohey. Here's a good quote from the book regarding debt. "In a seminar prepared for college students, we describe debt in terms of french fries. "Most of you are 19 or 20," we say to them. "Let's say you've got a hankering for a serving of french fries and it costs a buck at the local burger joint. Is it worth a dollar? Yes, it probably is. But what if you borrow the dollar at 9 percent and carry that debt until you're our age? By then you owe more than $10. Are the fries worth $10? No, of course not. Well 9 percent is the going rate now for those nifty home equity loans everyone seems to be touting. What if you use your credit card to pay for the fries and carry the debt at 18 percent? By the time your our age," we tell them, "You'll owe $87. But you might be thinking that you'd never borrow money for french fries. No? Well, think about it. If you always carry a balance on your card, like many families do, you could reduce that debt by a dollar if you pass on those fries, couldn't you? So when you buy them, you're making a decision to keep a dollar of debt at 18 percent when you could pay if off instead. How is that any different than buying french fries on credit? It isn't. A serving of fries for $87. Wow. That's a lot of money for one serving of french fries."

Mom invitee me over to a steak dinner at their house tonight for another Mother's Day celebration. She invited my sister and her family over also, plus my brother, but he didn't want to come.

Very good dinner, much better steak than last night's fancy/expensive dinner and in a nicer atmosphere too.

Got a Netrogena Mens moisturizer sample and a free Axe shower soap sample in the mail.

My parents went and got my grandma today to spend a few days at their house until Mother's Day. I had a free $25 restaurant.com coupon for a local expensive restaurant for buying the Entertainment book from My Points, so we went there for dinner.

Kind of weird experience. We went at 5 and were the only ones in the restaurant at first. There were only 3 total for the hour and a half we were there. The the owner comes out and tries to make us order wine, we don't drink. Then tries to sell us entrees and special salads etc. We makes us feel cheap because we don't want to spend money on these things. The meals start at $14. The food was good, but I prefer plain food to fancy food. I couldn't eat half of my meat and gave it to my dad to take home. The steak was undercooked and my stomach always gets upset unless the meat is well done, so I had a stomach ache all evening. But it did taste good and my meal was free, plus most of grandma's meal. But I don't think we'll be going back.

Went to my parents afterwards and spent the evening playing cards. Dad and I won 5 out of 8 games.

Has anyone gotten the Coca-Cola 5 2-liter bottle coupons yet. The game ended mid-March. I would think I would get them soon. I won 35 bottles.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Enemy by Lee Child. Mystery. Very Good. If you like the John Sandford Lucas Davenport books or the John D. MacDonald Travis McGee books, the hero Jack Reacher is kind of a cross between the two.

walked with mom for 55 min

Went to Rosie's for dinner. Spent $5

I'm a software tester and my job is to verify the code and the requirements match each other. When there are descrepancies I don't care which one changes as long as they match. So I've been testing a new, to me, area and I've found out that the test cases are poorly written and do a poor job of testing the product, so I basically had to start over, writing new tests. The only document I have is an out of day User Guide that I use for my requirements.

To make a very long story short, I've been finding lots of defects in the code and writing them up, based on the documentation. Most of them are legit, but some of them are because the documentation is wrong. Like I said I don't care which one changes as long as one of them does. But I've been pissing people off because this stuff was all supposed to be tested years ago, so how come I keep finding all these defects etc. I can't help what happened before it came to me, but I refuse to ignore problems and will not let the developers reject my defect tickets until I agree with the resolution. Thus, pissing people off.

So when I was talking to my boss today i told him I know I'm pissing people off, but I won't let it go. He said, "You're the sand in the oyster that makes the pearl out the product". So I said, "In other words I'm irritating!" Funny, but true. I guess that's my job and I do it well and it's why I've lasted through 12 layoffs. My new nickname is oyster sand.