Walked with mom everyday except Friday when it was snowing.

Got 2 free Soyjoy bars and 2 free trial size Dove deodorants today.

I read a book called The Apartment Farmer by Duane Newcomb. Excellent. Very good advice on how to grow vegetables indoors in containers, and on balconies or patios. I live in a townhome and have several south facing windows plus a 10' x 10' patio. I plan to try growing a few vegetables this year. I want to try easy things first so radishes, carrots, green onions and tomatoes. Eventually I would like to try corn, potatoes, celery, apple trees, cherry trees, grapes, onions, lettuces, watermelon, green beans and garlic.

I like radishes, carrots and celery for vegetables. Lately I cut them up on Sunday and portion them in two bags per day. One for lunch and one for dinner. That way I get my veggies and it's easy. I put in 4 - 5 radishes, 3 - 4 baby carrots and 1 - 2 stalks of celery per bag.

Last week I bought a self watering windowsill planter for less than $6 and planted some radishes. They have sprouted and should be ready to harvest in two more weeks. I bought another container and planted a second batch today. This time I counted how many I could fit in the container @120. Almost 2 weeks supply. So if I start planting every other week I should have a year round supply.

I'm keeping track of my costs which are containers, organic potting soil, organic fertilizer and seeds. The costs will amortize out over time. Currently a bunch of about 14 radishes is 1.29 in our stores. Totally ridiculous. And they are often too hot or too woody. Hopefully mine will be better

So 120 every two weeks would be worth around $11.00 x 26 harvests = $286

I'm going to start the cherry tomatoes next.

It's a new hobby and keeps my mind off of work so much. Speaking of which I had to put our code in the field this weekend and had to get up at 3:30 am Saturday morning to test it. I was on for 6 1/2 hours when it was only supposed to take 1 hour.

I swear I'm living in a Dilbert cartoon. In thier infinite wisdom the company decided to outsource at least 50% of the tech jobs to either Argentina or India. And then after doing that they turned around and decided any one who isn't a US based employee could not access the Production boxes. So the outsourced people test the product during the release and at the last minute hand if over to the few US employees who are left to pick it up and test during the implementation. So of course we now have 3 times the work that we were supposed to complete in the time allowed and we are not that familiar with it since we weren't the primary testers of it.

And of course the stuff I tested passed with flying colors but all the stuff I took over from outsourced people who supposedly tested their areas didn't work right. We found four main areas that never got tested by the Argentina people during the test cycle a day or so before we had to put it in production.

To make it even wierder. We had a US based employee who is an Indian go to India to work for 3 months and he was allowed to access the production boxes. What kind of logic is that? Indian contracters living in India can't do that. Indian contracters based in the US but who go to India for 3 months can. UGH!

And then we get told we need to hire more Argentina people to help us out because we don't have enough people to do the work. Who decided that we should hire people who can't speak English, who don't know how to test, who don't understand the platform and who can't do the work during the implementation is a solution to anything? It's so ridiculous, it's like living in an alternative universe.

I finished reading the library book Rider and Raelynx by Sharron Shinn. Sci/Fi Very good.

I finished reading the library book Beating the System The Next American Revolution by Larry Roth. Finance. Not that good. This guy doesn't like much and there's a kind of "I understand how the world works and if you don't see it my way the rest of you are fools" attitude about the book. No outstanding ideas or new information.

walked with mom at WalMart

Since the stock market dropped again I decided to go ahead and add money to my Roth IRA - $5000.00 Everyone can expect the market to go down again tomorrow

Sent for Glade Candle rebate $6.99

Finished reading my book The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches by Jeff Yeager. Finance. Good. Not a lot of outstanding information but kind of funny.

Walked with mom at WalMart

Parents took family to Red Lobster for my bday meal. Love Red Lobster I always get the same thing - popcorn shrimp. My oldest niece is the same we both think they are heaven

Went to Walgreens and got 2 Glade sindle candles. BOGO plus there is a rebate for full purchase price which will make both candles free. Going into the xmas stash for next year.

I'm reading a book called the Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches. He says we hardboils eggs while running his dishwasher. Runny yolks in the top shelf, firm yolks in the bottom. I have to try that just to see if it works. I've boiled eggs while cooking spagetti or potatoes, but I never thought of that one.

Finished reading the library book Captain's Fury by Jim Butcher. Sci Fi. Very good. He writes the Dresden Files books that were made into a series on TV. This is a different series but just as good.

Walked with mom at WalMart

When I was working on Thursday all the sudden my keyboard started typing gibberish. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I tried rebooting, looking at the control panel, checking websites for fixes etc. Nothing worked. So I dug an old keyboard out of the closet and plugged it in - problem solved. However the symbols on the keys for the old keyboard are pretty faded so I bought a new one from WalMart after we finished our walk for about $10

I got a free jar of Peter Pan cruncy peanut butter from Safeway. On sale for .99 cents plus I had a $1 off coupon. Love free stuff and love PB

Finished reading my book A Lick of Frost by Laurel K. Hamilton. Sci Fi/Fantasy. Excellent. Best one in this series since the first one. I think this one is number 4 in the series.

I turned 47 yesterday and decided to start my blog again. Basically I was under so much stress at work and spending so many hours on the computer, that for a long time I couldn't stand to get on the computer after my work was done. I'm determined not to work as many hours or to let work stress me out as much this year.

My mom and I went to Denver and to the Outlet Malls in Castle Rock to celebrate my birthday today. I got several good deals.

100 sq ft xmas wrapping paper for .80 cents

4 large disney princess gift bags for .74 cents each. My oldest niece loves the disney princesses.

2 hallmark xmas ornaments that can be used for my miniature hobby, a bicylce and a barbie house - 3.75 each

40 sheets of red and green tissue paper for 1.50

3 18 oz jars of Jif extra cruncy peanut butter for 4.00

80 ct Aleve for 2.00

24 ct Excedrin - free after rebate, plus had a 2.00 coupon so made money

and I got .10 cents off gas with my Safeway card

My 16 year old niece called last night and wanted to tell me happy bday and also tell me how much she loved the latest book I gave her to read.

She claims it's better than Harry Potter. So I know it was a definite hit. It's one of my favorties too. Another thing we have in common is we both like history. The book is called Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati. It's about an English woman who comes to America before we separated from England. She meets and falls in love with a fur trapper. The book gives a lot of period details, which is why I liked it so much. There a couple more in the series so my niece was ecstatic when I told her the story continues.

I finished reading the library book The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling. SciFi. Very good. This is the forth book in a series about America after all electricity and gun powder quits working and we have to rebuild our society. Good story

It was a very good month for increasing my Net Worth. Increased by 3.42%

I'm on vacation this week and enjoying the time to read, read, read.

Took my niece bowling on Saturday with a friend and her daughter. $18 for 2 games and shoes. Prices for bowling have gone up, but it's worth it. She enjoyed it. We went to Zio's for lunch. Love their spagetti and went to Cold Stone for a late afternoon snack.

Went to used bookstore and was a little surprised by the 5 books she picked out to read. 4 on the Underground Railroad and 1 on the Holocaust. Unusual for a 12 year old. I have $450 in credit at the used bookstore. I've been going there for 20 years now. But since I moved out of town I don't go very often anymore because it's so far away.

Finished reading the library book Alibi Man by Tami Hoag. Mystery. Ok

Finished listening to the library book on tape Sleeping with Fear by Kay Hooper. Mystery. Very good.

The weatherman is calling for snow tonight and tomorrow. We'll see. Right now there is a nice lightening storm. I love to watch those. I don't like the headache the weather is bringing thou, could do without that.

I don't know if it's just my company or everyone, but it seems like people just don't do their jobs anymore. We get paid very well at my company for the jobs we do. In my mind when I hired on I agreed to give the company value for the money they paid me. I would work hard and make them money and they would reward me with raises and promotions etc. The raises and promotions in the first few years and the last year have been very good. Some of the middle years when we going thru bankruptcy weren't so great. But overall I'm hapy with what I make. Even so I feel like the company gets a bargain in me.

I do more work than 5 other people put together on our team. And that wouldn't bother me so much except that more and more I find instances where other people didn't do their jobs at all and their are no consequences for that. I recently got a new assignment and I went checking for documentation on how to do it. My first clue that is was going to be bad was when the person who had been assigned to it for the last year didn't have any.

So I finally found some documents that were a couple years old. Basically what it is, is I need to run a twice weekly report telling me what errors exist on a certain system and then let people know which ones of their accounts have errors. So I went looking for the last file that was run. It had not been run since February of last year!

This person had not done their job for over a year. The report was a mess. It was so large I had to tell the system to give it more memory so it could run. There is no way to clean up a years worth of errors in two weeks. I was really ticked off and told my manager about the situation. Bottom line I have to clean it up the best I can and the other person didn't even get asked why they hadn't run this for a year. That really stinks.

I see examples like this all the time at work anymore. Other people don't do their jobs but report they are complete and then I get the assignment and have to work a lot of extra hours to clean up after them. Don't they care that they are taking the companies money falsely? It's like stealing to me, to not do the job you are given and taking a salary.

I keep telling my mom she raised me all wrong. She raised me with a conscience and feelings of guilt when I don't do something right. So it's all her fault. She's ok with the blame for that since my sister blames her for not giving her everything she wanted as a teenager and my brother blames my parents for not giving him a job his whole life. She'll take the blame for my problem.

Finished reading Innocence in Death by J.D. Robb. Mystery. Love these books, they are so good.

I really hate when web sites or applications I use change. I'm a stick in the mud and don't like to re-figure out how to use something.

Recently my company upgraded to Office 2003 and the Outlook is all different and I don't like it. Just leave it alone, it worked fine the way it was.

Mom and I are walking outside again. Almost all the snow has finally melted from December, just a few patches left here and there. The wildflowers are starting to come up too.

I broke down and had had a cleaning service come in and clean my house on Friday. I got so far behind and it was such a mess I was defeated before I even started trying to clean. I love the results, the whole house is clean at once and they did a great job. The toilets look brand new. We have calcium in our water and the spots are very hard to get out but they did it.

I used Merry Maid, 2 people for 1 and 1/2 hours $141. It wouldn't be worth it for me to do every month, for one thing my house doesn't get that dirty with just me, but every 3 or 4 months would be nice.

I got another bonus from work for $250 in Gift cards. Still have most of the cards left from the one I got in December, but it was very nice.

As I expected the ordeal with my mortgage company is ongoing. They reported me one month late on my payment to the credit companies and now I'm having to deal with that. I called the mortgage company and they can't fix it unless I write them a letter explaining what happened. They caused the problem and now I have to jump thru hoops to get it fixed. GRRRR!!!

I haven't felt like getting on the computer much lately for fun stuff. Too much time spent on it for work. But I felt free this weekend without the expectation that I would have to spend a lot of time cleaning my house, so I caught up with a lot of blogs and also sent for a bunch of free samples from WalMart. I haven't been doing that much recently and I used to check them out about once a week.

I've been spending a lot of time doing jigsaw puzzles lately. It's very relaxing and cleans out my head from work.

I finished reading the library book Empire by Orson Scott Card. Adventure. This was very good and very realistic. It predicts a civil war very soon in America's future because the political rhetoric is so outrageous any more. Very good story line.

Finally got around to doing my taxes. I get $845 back from Federal and $28 from State. The Federal is a little high so need to adjust for that.

My company gave us a 2% bonus in our 401Ks so instead of matching 6% last year they will match 8%. Nice.

Was snowing this morning so mom and I walked at Wal-mart. We have been walking outside since the time changed. We saw our first wild flowers yesterday and mom said she saw a robin. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground from December.

Got a letter from Experian saying something potentially damaging was added to by credit report. I expect it was that mess with my mortgage company, so now more phone calls. Makes me so mad, that they can screw up and then screw up your credit on top of it. I'm supposed to get my credit report in a week to see what it actually says.

I did send another $9000 to pre-pay my mortgage. The sooner it is gone, the better.

I have Friday and Monday off as vacation days. Went shopping with mom yesterday. Used one of my xmas gift cards to get ink at Best Buy and got a free ream of paper that I will add to my Dad's b-day present.

Tried the new orange cream Cadbury easter egg. Yum!

I've been doing a lot of jigsaw puzzles lately and got a great one from Target. It's a Thomas Kincaid painting of a cabin in the woods in the winter. A lot of blues and whites which should make it challenging. I hate it when the puzzles are too easy.

Read the library book the Alexandria Link by Steve Berry. Adventure. If you enjoy Dan Brown books you will like his books.

Finally got the mortgage stuff straightened out. Only took 2 months and 5 phone calls. What a pain. I just have to make sure the automatic payment starts again tomorrow and I'll be ready to send another principle payment. Only this time it will be for $9000 so they can't mistake it for a regular monthly payment. I figure in the future I will save up until I have big payments to make so hopefully I won't have to go thru this torture again.

Got my bonus in the last paycheck. My net was 52% of the bonus.

This month's networth went up .84% and most of that was because of the bonus. Took a small hit with the stocks yesterday.

Finished reading the library book Cross by James Patterson. Mystery. Very good.

Got a merit raise and a bonus today. Recieved the most allowed by company. 3% merit and over 7K bonus. Very nice.

The only thing I have a problem with the is the companies policy of putting 85% of employees in one band called performing. There a 3 bands total. Needs work, performing and leader. The manager is only allowed to give one leader rating in her entire group of about 60 people. I don't understand why companies do that. Where is the incentive to work harder if you are going to get the same rating as someone who does half the work you do?

Regardless of the band my manager thinks I'm a star and rewarded that by giving me the most she could. Nice.

Finished reading the library book Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich. Mystery. Latest Stephanie Plum book. Really good.

Well as suspected my mortgage company is still giving me fits. They reversed the December principle payment, but also reversed the January payment and then for some reason stopped the automatic payments so now I get a letter saying I'm two payments behind and have a late fee.

Called Monday and "oh, yeah it's our fault we can fix that, it will done tomorrow" Look on the website and no change. Call again today and after explaining the whole story I go into telephone limbo and get connected to someone else and have to start over.

"Well we can fix it, but you need to mail us your February payment. Next month the automatice payments will start again. And of course you won't be charged a late payment fee" Yeah, right and I believe in the tooth fairy too.

I'm sending them my February payment tomorrow. But plan to check their website frequently to make sure everything is the way it should be. I shall be extremely surprised if I don't have to make any more phone calls to them. I know I have to make at least one more, because of the screw up in the original principle payment, the interest I paid last year doesn't match the tax from they sent, so I will need to ask for an updated one.

Why is is it so difficult to get things fixed right the first time with big companies? Frustrating.

Finished reading the library book Find Me by Carol O'Connell. Mystery. Very good.

I watched the Dresden Files that are based on a series of books I like and I like the show. I haven't been as impressed by the Nora Roberts movies. They are ok, but the acting is not that good and they chop so much of the good stuff out of the movie version.

walked with mom at WalMart on Mon, Tue and Wed. Snowing again today.

Networth increased 4.13% in Jan. Pretty happy with that.

In December I sent $1000 to my mortgage company with a letter asking them to apply it towards the principle. Looking at my account online I saw they put part of it towards January's payment and the rest towards principle. So I called and she reversed it. But now they didn't pay January's payment with the money that came in after that and put that money towards principle too. Sigh... I hate calling companies. When I asked the woman why they didn't put the original $1000 towards the principle when I wrote a letter and the check also said apply towards principle, she tells me they don't read the letters, but just put the money where they think it goes. Nice

Read the library book Return of the Warrior by Kinley MacGregor. Romance. Very Good.

walked with mom at WalMart for 35 min.

Someone is rummaging through my library for books to put on TV. Yesterday, I watched the Dresden Files a new Sci Fi show. It features stories by Jim Butcher one of my favorite authors and one who's books are on my shelves. It was pretty good.

Today I watched Nora Roberts book Angel's Fall on Lifetime. And see that they are making 3 more movies from her books for the next 3 Monday nights.

And I saw an advertisement for Blood Ties by Tanya Huff another favorite Sci Fi writer. It's going to be a series on Lifetime. This is pretty cool. Of course the books are much better, but the TV of the books is better than most of the other stuff on TV. The only problem is that now I'll end up watching more TV

Finished reading the library book Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood. Romance/Mystery. Very Good

went to the Dr office. My cholesterol is now considered low at 128 and my LDL is also low at 71. My triglicyerides are still a little high at 157, but only by 20 points, but the Dr wants me to remain on that medicine. I'll do it for a couple more months, but if the levels are low/normal I want off.

She did increase the diabetes meds and I have to go back in a couple months to see if it's working.

Got my hair cut at Great Clips after the Dr appt. They had a coupon for a haircut for $5.99 in the mail this week. Half-price.

This has been a really nice week as far as work goes. 8 hour days and much less hectic. Found out today we have a 3 month gap before the next release starts. Time to really catch up and get things in good shape.

Worked with new team lead to make assignments for next release and based on my input on how long each item should take, we tried to give everyone on the team approx 6 weeks of work. This worked for most of the people, with a few at 4 weeks. At least that's much fairer than giving me 10 weeks of work to do in 6 weeks and giving someone else 1 week of work. I stil do more work in the 6 weeks than 3 other people, but as long as I feel they have to work to their max during those 6 weeks and aren't just slacking off, I'm ok with that.

Finished reading the library book Stalemate by Iris Johansen. Mystery/Romance. Very good.

mom and I have been walking at WalMart for about 35 min every day. We got another 8 inches of snow on Sunday.

I got groceries on Sunday and saved 48%. Got two boxes of Electrosol dishwasher tabs for free.

Work is getting slightly less hectic since I met my deadline last Friday. I worked two 14 hour days and 2 12 hour days last week.

I got blood work for my diabetes checkup and it's way out of whack. I don't really know why, but have an appointment tomorrow with Dr. Expect she will put me on more meds. I think the biggest issue is not stopping to eat regular meals and not eating well-thought out meals, instead just grabbing things because it's 3 in the afternoon and I've been on calls for 5 hours.

Finished reading the library book Plum Loving by Janet Evanovich. Mystery/Romance. Very cute and good.

walked with mom at WalMart for 40 min. Got a pair of slippers for $2.50 that were on clearance. They cover my ankles and have hard soles which I like.

Yesterday went in town and went to KMart. Got a 3-pack of Planter's peanuts for $2.99 they were 75% off. Also got two bottles of Nature Made vitamins. 300 Ct Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc BOGO. I had a $2 coupon and a $5.00 rebate. So only paid $1 for the 2 bottles.

It's my bday today. Thanks for all the best wishes. I really like the scissors my mom got me that hang on the fridge. I've used them several times and they are very convenient.

Finished reading the library book Grave Sights by Charlaine Harris. Supernatural. Good.

parents took me to Outback for lunch for my b-day. It's not till Wednesday but this was the day everyone could get together.

Got a Back Massager, Sissors that hang on the refrigerator in a magnetic hanger, a hardback book, a mini frying pan, a subscription to Smart Shopping magazine, a universal remote, an electric candle warmer, a liner for the bottom of the oven, a $25 gift card to Outback and $30 in cash. I like everything.

Mom and I walked for 40 min in the mall after lunch. There's no where to walk outside. We got 62 inches of snow in December and by Jan 1 we had 102 inches accumulation. We got another 12 inches since Jan 1 so lots and lots of snow.

Went to Walgreens and got a 24 ct bottle of Excedrin for $3.00 with a $3.00 rebate, plus I had a $1.00 off coupon so made money on that, got Stayfree, buy $10 get $10 so free. And started on the Kimberly Clark rebate. Buy $20 get $10. I got 2 boxes of Kleenex for 1.40

Got two free samples from WalMart this week too. Dove and Sunsilk shampoo.

Finished reading the library book An Unexpected Song by Iris Johansen. Romance. OK

We got another 10 inches of snow today. Maybe we won't have water restrictions this summer because we will have enough water accumulated for a change. It's a sure thing that most of this stuff will still be here in April. We have piles and piles of it.

401K questions. You are allowed to put $15,500 in your 401K this year. If you are over 50 you can put another $5,000 in your 401K. Your company decides what percentage of your salary you are allowed to contribute. It's different at different companies. Your company can decide to match some of all of your contributions based on their policy. My companies policy is to match dollar for dollar up to 6% of your salary. However, you can contribute up to 25% of your salary until you meet the contributions limits. If we have a good year the company may boost their matching contribution by another 3% or 9% total. I haven't heard if they are going to give us that this year or not.

Finished reading Greywalker by Kat Richardson. Supernatural. Good

went into work today. Lot's of pressure right now in the middle of a release. Went to lunch at Black Eyed Pea with friend. Spent $8

Finally was able to get to 401K website and increase my contribution limits to 20%. Also funded my Roth IRA for 2007.

I got several rebates in the mail yesterday, plus my $250 in gift cards for my award. If I was a dishonest person I could probably get $250 more. I was supposed to have to sign for them to get them, but the mail man left them under the mat in front of the door.

I really hate stupid women books and I seem to be getting a run of them. I put the last two down before finishing them. Stupid women are women who react emotionally and do stupid things, like run out into traffic causing accidents because they are upset, or something along those lines. Drives me nuts and I can't read the rest of the book.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Dark Guardian by Christine Feehan. Supernatural. Very good.

we got another 18 inches of snow on top of the 3 feet we got last week. Supposedly it's over for now. The roads aren't bad, they've been plowing night and day, the problem is we've had so much snow there's no where to put it. There are mounds of snow everywhere. They won't melt until spring.

Dad drove mom and me to the WalMart so we could walk. First time in several days and it felt really good.

Transfered $1000 to my HSBC account.

Finished reading my book Knight of Darknes by Sherilyn Kenyon. Romance. Very good.

Finished reading the library book Mistrail's Kiss by Laurell K. Hamilton. Supernatural. Excellent.

had a very good xmas. The girls really liked their presents. Brother was excited about his stuff and generally had a good time.

It snowed again xmas morning and again today. About 3 inches so far today. It's very unusual to have this much snow this early in the year. As long as I don't have to go anywhere I don't mind though. Not getting my walking done.

Work is finally starting to get a little better. Still way too much to do and I still have the brunt of the work, but new boss called today and said she reviewed the work load and I have the most what do I want to get rid of. Nice. I was able to give away 30 out of my 800 tests, but it's a start.

Finished reading the library book My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding by misc. Short stories. Very good

nice relaxing day. Got a little more snow to add over the top of the 7 foot drifts we already have Not enough to worry about though. They are calling for a little bit more tomorrow.

Went to Village Inn around 9 this morning to get a pie for xmas tomorrow. I wanted one of the candy cane ones but they were all sold out, so I got a french silk holiday pie. I don't like chocolate pie, but my sister and nieces will like it and mom's making pumpkin pie for me anyways. She made me macadamia nut peanut brittle too. It was really good. Spent $10 for the pie.

Went to the grocery store, which was a zoo. Spent $51.01.

I watched the Pink Panther movie that I got from the library. It was good. I also watch the Year without a Santa Clause which is my favorite christmas show.

Finished reading the library book Hundred Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker. Mystery. Very good.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas.

We dug out from our 2-day blizzard yesterday. My back-yard had 7 foot drifts. The patio door was covered with snow. It's really not that big of a deal. The electricity rarely goes out for these blizzards and when it doesn it's usually only a few hours. I get a least 2 a year of the big ones where the drifts cover the patio doors. As long as I don't have to go anywhere I'm content.

There are huge piles of snow along all the roads and in the parking lots.

I had a vacation day on Friday. Yesterday morning after they plowed one-lane on our road, my parents came by in their big 4-wheel drive and dad drove us to Wal-Mart where mom and I walked thru the store for some exercize. We did do a little shopping too, but mostly walked. Walked for 45 min. Got the last of my xmas gifts.

We went to Chili's for lunch. I spent $8

My friend came over today. We were going to have lunch and watch the Pink Panther with Steve Martin that I got from the library, but after lunch and talking for about an hour she went home because she couldn't shake her headache. We exchange gifts and I bought her 4 books, since she borrows all mine and I know what she likes and she got me a $20 gift card to Borders so I can buy more books to loan her works out well for both of us. I also gave her the gift I got for her daughter to take home. She's 5 and it's always fun to buy for that age.

After she left I went to my parents and played cards with them and my Grandma who's staying with them for xmas.

I finished reading the library book Dzur by Steven Brust. Sci/Fi good

I finished reading the library book Treasures of Kahn by Clive Cussler. Adventure. Very good.

It's been bitterly cold here for the last couple of days. Right now it's 21.

I have Friday off for vacation. Have to use it up. But it's so stupid, I'm swamped right now because we have a new release so I'll work all those vacation hours before Friday. Don't know what the point is.

I do have a lot of financial things I'm storing up to do Friday. I need to check on my flex account and see if there is any money left in it. I'm waiting to rebalance my investments till after the first of the year when my old 401K gets deposited into new companies 401K with new investment choices. I'm not going to rebalance now and then have to choose again after the first of the year.

Finished reading the library book Born in Death by J.D. Robb. Mystery/Romance. Excellent - really funny bits about childbirth

walked with mom for 35 min

Got the last of the packages I'm expecting in the mail today. The second glass angel showed up and it wasn't broke, so mom was happy. Dad glued the other one and you can't tell it was ever broke, so two for the price of one.

Mom had a bunch of relatives over yesterday for xmas. She told me my dad was on the computer showing all the uncle's how to do research on ATVs and stuff. So funny, since before this year we couldn't even get him to turn it on. I figured once we found something he liked, he would take to it. Mom says he's on there all the time now and she doesn't get to use it as much as she wants

Purchased $50 in Chili's gift cards yesterday. Got $10 in bonue cards. $30 will go to Dad for xmas and $30 for me.

King Sooper's sent me 6 more coupons for $10 off $50 purchase. Since I'm buying xmas gifts as well as my groceries I was easily able to use it this week. Should be easy next week too. After that may have to give them to parents.

Finished reading my book Crimson Code by Rachel Lee. Thriller. Good.

I got an award today at work from my manager. Equivalent of $250 that you can use to purchase items from an award catalog. I selected $150 in Target GCs, $50 in Barnes and Noble GCs, $25 in Shell Gas GC and $25 in Borders GC. I was pretty happy, it wasn't the amount as much as it was the recognition of how much work I do. I will have to pay taxes of course. Last time I got an award they took out around 52% in taxes We are 3 days behind on our release right now. Hopefully I can make it up without having to work a ton of extra hours.

My sister had surgery today to remove one of her ovaries. She had a huge tumor, but they think it's not cancerous. She'll be going home on Friday. Mom and Dad took my nieces out for dinner tonight at Chili's and I joined them. $8

Finished listening to the library book on tape Fatal Tide by Iris Johansen. Mystery/Romance. Very good.

went into work today. Several times I started to send out email telling people they needed to do something, but stopped myself. I'm trying really hard to back off on trying to keep up with everything. It's the managers job to make sure the stuff that needs to get done, does. If they don't care enough to track it why should I. But it's very hard

Spent two hours uninstalling and reinstalling software. Hate that.

Went to Ruby Tuesday's with friend for lunch. Got a $25 GC and $5 bonus. Spent $35

Went to Dollar Store and bought a bunch of stuff for brothers xmas plus some xmas bags and odds and ends for me. Spent $15, $7.50 for his stuff.

I called Paragon about the broken stained glass angel and they are priority shipping another one. They said don't bother sending the other one back, give it to the goodwill or do whatever want with it. My mom is going to try to glue it. Maybe she'll get two angels.

Got the half.com book I ordered for niece in mail today and sold one of my books and put it in the mail.

Finished reading the library book Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton. Short stories. OK

walked 50 min with mom

Got gas and a car wash. Wash was $1 with 8 gal purchase, my car really needed it. Spent $21 gas 2.08/gal

Went to Walgreens spent $5.67 on Mr Clean erasers, which I love for cleaning, Windex wipes and 2 cans of tuna for brother's xmas.

Went to Target and got 3 lbs of walnuts. $7.16

Went to Red Robins and got a $25 gift card plus $5 bonus card.

Met my family at Texas Roadhouse for mom's bday dinner celebration. Gave mom her gifts. Red and White candy salt and pepper shakers - she collects them. A non-stick mat for bottom of oven and a beautiful stained glass angel. Unfortunately the angel was broke and I'll have to return it. I don't know what it is about stuff I get for my mom, but it seems like there is something wrong every year and I have to return something. Oh well, at least it's something I know she'll like once I get another one.

My mom's bday is about 2 weeks before xmas and mine is about 2 weeks after. I told my dad it was better to have it before, because people are just getting in the mood to celebrate and go out and party. After xmas everyone is tired of celebrating. My dad said plus they have money before xmas and afterwards they're broke. How true.

Finished reading the library book Dark Lover by J.R. Ward. Supernatural. Very good.

walked with mom for 50 min.

Went to Village Inn for dinner. $9

I've seen several ads for restaurant gift cards. Buy a card for $25 and get $5 extra. Pretty good deal. Plus if I use my Discover card I get another 5% back. I'm going to buy several tomorrow.

Here's a list of who's offering the cards that I know of.

Chili's
Red Robin
TGIF
Ruby Tuesday's
Sonic
Black Angus

The only catch is you usually only have a couple of month's to use the $5 bonus card.

Finished reading the library book Trouble in High Heels by Christina Dodd. Romance. Cute. good.