walked with mom for 35 min today. I took an early lunch so we could get our walk in. It was starting to snow when we started walking at 10:50. We have about 2 inches of snow so far, but it's really icy. A lot of roads are closed. It took a lot of people hours to get home tonight. So glad I wasn't one of them and won't have to try to drive into work in the morning.

Sold two more books at half.com today. One for $15 and one for $13. Just when I start thinking I haven't made any sales for awhile, I get two.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell. Romance/Mystery. Very good.

I was browsing the library website for books to check out and I found out they have a new book I've been looking for, but it's an EBOOK. I can't figure out how to get access to it. I don't see information about it on their main page, and there is nothing to click on for the book itself. Next time I go to the library I'll have to ask one of the librarians how this works. Surely you can't download a library book to your PC. Anyone else have experience with this?

walked with mom for 35 min today. The wind was blowing really hard. I was looking out the window in my office and I see this bird flapping it's wings as hard as it can and staying in one place in the air and then eventually getting pushed backwards. It was very comical. Almost like a cartoon.

Wow! there were so many entries today I had to go to the 2nd page to find my journal. It's great that so many people are journaling.

I found out what the descrepancy was with my paystub. The problem was with the stock options I did this year.
I did some research on this and found a good question and answer page that had the following:

Why am I taxed twice when I exercise stock options and sell the stock at the same time?
You have two separate transactions that must be reported separately even if they occur at the same time. But you aren't taxed twice on the same income. The profit from exercising your stock option is treated as compensation income and appears on Form W-2. In addition, you have to report a sale of the stock, which shows up on Form 1099-B. This form shows the total proceeds of the sale, not the amount of taxable gain. Before you figure your gain, you get to add the option profit from your W-2 to the amount you paid for the stock. That means you won't pay additional tax unless you sold the shares at a price that was higher than the value used to determine the option profit.

Bottom line is I was counting the gain twice when figuring my taxes, so it looks like I should be getting money back instead of owing. I'm still waiting for forms and will work on it some more this weekend to get a better final amount.

Finished listening to the library book on tape The Color of Death by Elizabeth Lowell. Romance/Mystery. Very good.

Finished reading the library book Dark Watch by Clive Cussler. Adventure. Also very good. I like his Dirk Pitt series better, but I like this new series with Juan Cabrillo also

went into work today and didn't get home till 6:00 so another day where I couldn't walk.

Stopped at the bank and deposited $48.48 from rebate checks.

Got 3 more rebate checks in today's mail. $5.00 from Hasbro for the games I bought for xmas. 3.99 for Tums and $10 from DelMonte. Like these kind of mail days.

Have some more rebates I need to look into, to see if they are worth it to me. I don't go out of my way for rebates, but do try to take advantage when they are easy and are for things I buy anyways or can give to someone else who'll use them.

I had the day off for Martin Luther King day. It snowed and was very cold so I didn't get to walk.

Worked on my taxes some more. Based on my preliminary numbers looks like I will get $1K back. That's way more than I expected so I need to redo my numbers when I'm not so tired. It looks like my last paycheck for the year is wrong by $5000 too much for the number to pay federal taxes on. Gross salary - 401K, medical, lt disability, and all those other items that you aren't supposed to get taxed on. I need to figure out what's going on with that. I'll try human resources tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm going into work tomorrow and don't like to do that kind of thing in the office where everyone can hear what you're talking about, so I'll probably wait till Wednesday. If it is wrong, I'd like to get it figured out before I get a W-2 with bad data also and then have to wait to get that straightened out.

Sure hope I have my numbers right, that would be great.

Finished reading the library book S is for Silence by Sue Grafton. Mystery. Very good. I've always liked the Kinsey Millhone books.

walked with mom for 35 min

Went to get groceries this morning at King Soopers. Still need to clean out my freezer so only bought produce and things on sale, eggs and a newspaper. Spent $16.04. Saved 31% according to reciept

Met a friend of mine and we went to see Narnia. Very good movie. Spent $5.50
Afterward we went to Chili's for a late lunch. Spent $11 and brought half my lunch home.

The we went to Target and wandered around. I got 2 more jigsaw puzzles and two dolls. Spent $38.30 on my $100 free CC. This takes me to $104.33 on the CC so I will owe $4.33 on the bill

Total spent this month = $219.06

It was good meeting my friend and catching up. It's often hard for married friends with children to make time to spend with single friends. We try to get together at least once a month.

walked with mom for 55 min. My legs were a little sore from yesterday. Not sure what it is about shopping, but my legs and feet get much more tired shopping than straight walking.

Worked on my taxes today, got all the charity stuff pulled together and started on interest forms. Will try and finish those on Monday. Pulled the forms from the IRS site and printed a couple to use for the first rough draft.

Closed my ING account. There are too many other banks that pay better and it's one less account to deal with. Had to call them to close the account, there's no method for doing this online. Had to wait for 30 min to get to a person. I tried the automated system first, but there wasn't an option to close the account so I selected the option to talk to a person and got disconnected. That seems to happen with a lot of companies anymore. Really ticks me off since I tested one of the software products that companies use to route you through a phone menu and I know how easy it is to configure it correctly.

Went to the post office and mailed my half.com book, new postage prices so went from 1.44 to 1.59

Total spent this month = $186.52

Went to the library and picked up my holds. I found a book while I was browsing in my favorite section called Top Secret Recipes LITE! by Todd Wilbur. The book contains recipes from restaurants and fast food places that copies the recipes, only with less calories and fat. The book has at least two recipes that I want to try out; Olive Garden's Pasta E Fagioli and Taco Bell's beef soft taco. They have a recipe for twinkies, but since I don't like the real deal I probably won't try that one. Might try the KFC coleslaw.

Finished reading my book Arthur by Stephen R. Lawhead. Sci Fi. 3rd in the Arthur series. Very good.

I always take a day off around my birthday and mom and I drive up to Denver to go shopping.

We stopped off at the Wal-Mart in Castle Rock first. Got there nice and early so we could wander through without the crowds. I like shopping in Wal-Mart for the prices, but I don't usually go there because of the crowds.
Spent $39.95 paid for by my $10 AMEX card and my $100 Sony Card. Got a black hoodie for walking and got 3 trial size Dove Deoderants for free after coupons. Also got a new pair of sunglasses since my other pair broke.

Got gas for 2.24/gal - spent $17.36

We went to Red Robin for lunch. I joined the Red Robin club awhile back so I had an email for a free Gourmet Burger for my b-day. We were walking into the restaurant and my mom goes, "I'm buying, because you drove" I said fine and she looks at me funny, because she knows I rarely let her buy and I told her I had the email for the free burger. LOL. After the meal, which would have cost $8 before tip, they brought me a huge ice cream Sundae and sang happy birthday to me. Embarrassing. We split the sundae. I figure between the burger and sundae it's at least $11. That's a pretty good deal for your b-day. I let mom pay the tip for my meal.

Next stop was Hallmark for mom and Border's for me. They are next to each other in Denver. I spent $11.72 for 2 books, had a 25% off coupon on 1 book and the other one was already marked down 20%. Again paid for by my $100 Sony card.

Then we went to Michaels where I didn't buy anything. And then to the Office Max which is right next to it. I got a desk organizer to put on my kitchen counter to hold sissors, coupons, mail, pencil, pen, paper etc. It was on sale for half price, spent $7.30 using a card that gives me 3% back on office purchases.

After that was the Container Store. One of my favorite stores. I spent $14.36, again paid for by my $100 Sony Card. Then we went to Linen's and Things were I didn't get anything.

Next stop was Cold Stone I let mom pay for my small ice cream, since she insisted. On the way home, we stopped back in Castle Rock at the Outlet malls. I got a pasta measurer for $1.06 in one of the Kitchen stores and picked up a sandwich at Subway to have for supper. $6.21

Total on Sony Card = $56.03 still have almost $44 free money to spend.

Total spent this month = $184.93

Picked up my mail when I got home. I got my $100 worth of Barnes and Noble gift cards from a different $100 CC I opened.

I got my property tax bill, I already paid it in Dec. I sent in the same amount they charged for last year, but it's less this year by about $4 so I should get a little bit back.

Now for the only bad news of the day. I got my new heating bill. I do budget billing and it went up from $40 a month to $56 a month, a 40% increase. I guess It's not that big a deal it's only $16 a month, but still, 40%.

When I got online this evening I saw I sold another book to half.com for $2.50

All in all a very good Friday the 13th for me.

walked with mom for 35 min. We planned to walk for 55 but it was freezing. It was 32 but the wind was blowing. I was so cold my face was frozen. I decided 35 min was enough.

We went to dinner at Village Inn. I spent $7 on breakfast. I love breakfast in the evenings.

Total spent this month = $154.06

Have a headache tonight so going to bed early, hopefully I can sleep it away. I had one last night too, was awake till 4:00 am. Makes for a long day.

walked with mom for 35 min

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.

I had a much calmer day at work today and was actually able to get stuff done. I hope tomorrow goes well too. I work on schedules and my next big due date is Jan 27. I'll really be sweating it to make it in time. Especially since I have this Friday off for vacation and Monday off for Martin Luther King day, and I don't like to work overtime if I can help it, since I'm on salary and don't get paid for OT. I have 3 meeting scheduled for the same time tomorrow. I hate meetings since it seems you get 3 new tasks for every meeting you attend, and if you don't attend the meeting you get 5 new tasks.

I finally got the $100 bonus for opening a Visa card. I opened the card back in Sept so it took a long time to show up.

I also got the book Stop Working, Start Living today. That was really fast, I only ordered it Monday morning. It was in good shape too. Now I'll have it in my library to reread for inspiration. i don't keep a lot of financial books I have about 25 and reread around 10 each year.

walked with mom for 55 min

Today is my 45th birthday only 5 years left to meet my goal of retiring at 50. I made last years investment goal so it's still looking good on paper. I'm right on track.

I got a $10 AMEX card today for a survey I did awhile back, may have been a link from this site.

I interviewed 3 more people at work today for new jobs. But we still have the same problem with communication for all of them. We haven't found one American with the skills we're looking for in the past year, they are all Indian. If anyone is in the IT field and you have an opportunity to get training in the Mercury Interactive suite of test tools, you should go for it. The pay level is very good 70K+ I think it's pretty smart of the Indians to get the training in the area that is most marketable, I just have a hard time communicating with them and was hoping not to have that level of stress added to training new people. We'll definetely hire one of the ones we interviewed today and might hire another one. We had so much trouble understanding him over his cell phone, we couldn't tell if the problem was him or the phone, so we plan to do a follow up interview.

My mom fixed a Thanksgiving dinner for me tonight for my b-day. Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, salad and rolls. It's always my favorite. It was so good, but I skipped the ice cream afterwards I was too full, plus it's not really something I should have anyways. Then we played cards for a couple of hours.

spent most of the day cleaning and laundry. Fixed a big pot of beans and sausages also.

I decided I needed to clean out my freezer so I planed meals for the week using freezer items.

Got a $16 gift certificate for SunCoast or Sam Goody's from Media Play, since they went out of business this month. I don't buy things at Sam Goods or SunCoast so maybe I'll take one of my nieces and see if they want something for the next b-day.

Went to the library and picked up my holds.

I wish eating right was as easy as saving money. When you decide to save money you make the decision once. Then you take one action to automatically invest the money. You don't have to think about it again unless you want to move the money or increase the amount you are saving. When you decide to eat right you have to make the decision 3 or more times a day and you have to take action 3 or more times a day plus the day you go grocery shopping. It's a pain. It would be so much easier if you could go on auto-pilot like you do for saving money.

so glad to see this work week end. Problem after problem mostly having to do with communicating with people who don't speak English well. These are smart people, but it gets so frustrating when you have to say the same thing 3 times. Ah well, getting close to the end of my management task, supposedly the end of this month someone else will take over and I can go back to being a worker bee. That's what I like. Only have to take responsibility for me.

The rumor is that we will be losing a lot of the Indian contractors we recently hired in the US and we will be outsourcing those jobs, probably to India. They say it's at least 50% cheaper. Just when you get someone trained you get to start over.

I got a check for $39.39 in the mail for a credit card rebate today. I'll add that to my Extra Fund.

Went to dinner with parents tonight at Village Inn. Spent $6.

Total spent this month = $94.25

Finished listening to the library book on tape Lost and Found by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance. Very good

Finished reading my book Merlin by Stephen R. Lawhead. Sci Fi. Very good, 2nd in series about Arthur. I finally calmed down enough from job issues to read again tonight.

walked with mom for 35 min

Not much to post today. Still distracted so didn't read. Watched Kristi Yamaguchi ice skating show. It was really good. Lots of the older skaters that I don't see much any more.

Be glad when this week is over.

walked with mom for 35 min

Mailed my 2 half.com books and spent $2.94

Total spent this month = $88.25

I tried to finish reading my book tonight but I was too distracted with work issues so I ended up switching between Project Runway and last seasons American Idol for about 3 hours. What a waste of time since I'd seen 2 of the 3 Project Runway shows and all of American Idol last year. I usually only watch about an hour of TV each night, but since I couldn't concentrate I guess it was ok.

Lot's of things going on at work, too much to do which is why I can't turn my brain off. I hope I can sleep tonight.

I spent about an hour today shredding old bills. I have four expandable folders, two are check size and two are file size. Each folder is divided into months. I put my reciepts in the check size one and my bills and credit card statements in the file size one. Then I fill them up during the year. At the end of the year I put the folders on a shelf and fill up the next two. So at the end of year two I take the folders that have year one's documents and shred them. I figure if I haven't needed them for a year, I won't need them and it's a simple way to organize. I file bank statements and tax stuff and anything important in my file cabinet.

went into work today and ran errands on the way home.

Walgreens - got 2 18 oz jars of Jif extra crunchy peanut butter for $1 each. very good deal. Also got a replacement heating pad. One of the things I asked for at Christmas was a heating pad. I got one, but I could barely feel it even on high so my mom returned it and gave me the money. I found a cheaper one that works better at Walgreens. I use heating pads a lot because my lower back hurts most of the time. Probably from sitting in front of the computer so much Bought a couple other things and spent $23.10

Went to Souper Salad and got a salad for dinner and two bowls of soup for lunch for the next couple of days. $6.22

Last stop was Kmart. I hate to complain when people give you gifts because it is the thought that counts, but in the case of my sister, her thought is just give anything so you can say you gave something, nevermind if it's something they would want or use. If they don't like it, give them the receipt so they can be the ones to go through the hassle of exchanging it. Anyways before Christmas she was asking me if I liked Carrie Underwood (she's the last American Idol). I said she was ok, but she wasn't a favorite of mine. So what did I get for Christmas? A Carrie Underwood tape. I took it back to Kmart today and bought some moisturizer and still have 3+ on the gift card. I would just as soon she didn't get me anything though, really, it wouldn't bother me in the least. But every year it's the same kind of gifts, where you know she didn't think about it but got the first thing she saw. Bah humbug!

Total spent this month = $85.41

Sold two more books at half.com today.

Finished reading the library book The Low GI Diet Revolution by Jennie Brand-Miller. Diet. Good, probably the best one about the GI Diet I've read so far.

walked with mom for 55 min

Last year I decided to start putting the extra money that came into my life in a saving account that I call my Extra Fund. The money is meant to be used for fun stuff (currently I am saving it for my Canadian vacation later this year). I wanted to track what was coming back to me for these kinds of activities.

I made $806.23 to put in the fund

I tracked the following categories

Rebates (doesn't include Walgreens rebates, since I get them in gift card form and reuse it each month) $89.38
Interest on checking/savings $18.93 - interest on other accounts is reinvested
Credit Card Rebates $256.47
Loose Change $102
Sell Stuff $98.57
half.com $93.88
Pinecone surveys $20
other (bank bonuses, etc) $127

It's pretty neat to see how much it adds up to. I should track my Walgreens rebates and freebies this year. The Walgreens rebates would be easy to track, but it's hard to put a value on some of the freebies. Maybe I'll just track the items each month.

Finished reading the library book First Impressions by Jude Deveraux. Romance. Very good. I really like her books because her heroines are like normal people. This one was 45 and she had nasty thoughts about other people and normal flaws. Her books are also funny. Good read.

walked with mom for 55 min

My goals for December were:

1. Set financial goals for 2006 - Done

2. Save my 3rd paycheck - Done

3. Save 1000 over my 401K contribution - Done

4. Keep within $450 budget for groceries, gas, household expenses, - Done

Total spent was $425.17

Groceries - 139.35
Fast Food - 39.45
Restaurants - 52.62
Nieces - 17.27
Books/Newspapers - 56.90
Gas - 51.98
HBAs - 21.10
Enertainment - 5.06
Other - 41.44

5. Walk for at least 35 min 20 times or more - Done

Made all 5 goals for this month

My networth increased 1.94% for the month.

Lay down for a nap this afternoon and ended up sleeping for 3 hours. I guess I was tired, I normally only nap for about an hour. That should help me stay awake to watch the fireworks. I have a great view of Pikes Peak from my office window. I can sit up here and watch the fireworks in comfort.

I hope everyone has a prosperous 2006.

walked with mom for 55 min

Last vacation day of the year. Went into town. Home Depot first where I picked up the can of Gell Gloss that the shower people recommended for cleaning the shower - supposed to get rid of water spots. 16 oz can for $6.94

Next stop Media Play. What a zoo! It's going out of business at the end of January so everything was 40 60% off. Unfortunately they aren't selling any of their books, they had books there but they were all placed behind a boundary. Not sure why they won't sell thier books. They didn't have a lot of inventory of anything else left either. I had a gift card that I wanted to use up before everything was gone, so I spent about an hour and finally found 3 CDs I liked. Ended up costing me .06 cents.

Next stop was Barnes and Noble I had a 15% off one item coupon. I got 4 books and a magazine. 1 of the books was the glycemic index of different foods. I've been looking for that. The magazine was called Arthur Frommer's Smart Shopping. It was the premier issue. It was pretty good and had some good ideas I hadn't heard before, such as most Humane Society's will sell you nutritious dog food for 10 cents a lb. I'll look for the next one. It comes out 4 times a year. I got the Fall one so the next one should be out soon. Spent $31.56 but it was all gift cards so doesn't come out of budget.

Went to Sonic for lunch, spent 6.54

Got gas at Albertson's 2.07/gal spent $20.23

Total spent this month = $422.66

Last stop was library to pick up holds.

walked with mom for 35 min

Went to McDonalds for lunch spent $5.54

Total spent this month = $388.89

I made spagetti for supper. I don't know what it is about spagetti noodles, but they never taste right to me, when I make them at home. I've tried several different methods from different cooking times to rinsing them after cooking. I don't have problems with any other kinds of noodles that I make, it's just spagetti. They're edible, but something is wrong. I've pretty much given up on them and mostly use other pasta types when I cook pasta. I had a yummy grilled salmon and egg noodle dish on Monday and the noodles were perfect.

Finished reading the library book One Grave Too Many by Beverly Connor. Forensic Mystery. Very Good. This is a new author similar to Patricia Cornwell books, but the characters aren't as strange. I put two more of this character's books on hold at the library and she has books about another character so I put a hold on one of those. Love it when I find a new author to read.

It's my 200th post too, Laura Hard to believe.

walked with mom for 35 min

Got the CD All Jacked UP by Gretchen Wilson for Christmas and listened to it today. I liked it but I liked her first one better.

My sister got me some great Isotoner slippers that have a hard sole and come up around my ankles. They are very cushy on the feet. I'll look for some when I'm at a store and see if I can get another pair. I generally keep one pair upstairs and one down, both my old ones are shedding and I need to get rid of them. I go barefoot most of the year, but I keep it cool enough to need slippers in the wintertime.

Finished listening to the library book on tape Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Adventure. Very good.

Finished reading my book Kiss Me Annabel by Eloisa James. Romance. Good book, cute

Started pulling tax stuff together, got a printout of my final paycheck of the year and ran the numbers in my head. Think it will be pretty close with me owing a little bit.

walked with mom for 35 min

back to work today, took an hour to deal with all the emails for 3 days off.

The shower guy came again today and installed the shower doors. It's finally all done. I do like it, but didn't like the whole experience. They gave me a $125.00 discount for all the aggravation, so that's nice. They didn't bring the warranty though or the cleaning instructions, so they are supposed to mail that to me. The installer told me to use Gel Gloss for cleaning, he said it removes the water spots. I checked and Home Depot has a 16 oz can for 5.98. I'll try to stop by and pick some up this weekend. I have a bad water spotting problem and I hate scrubbing

I'm about $2000 away from making my networth goal for the year. Hope the stock market picks up a bit this week.

walked with mom for 55 min

Spent about an hour setting up a networth spreadsheet for my parents and showing them how to work with spreadsheets. Hope they can use it now that it's done and that they will actually use it. It will make their lives easier. Also showed my mom how to set tabs on a Word document. She is finally getting to the point where she is more comfortable with computers and is even starting to figure out some things for herself, mostly having to do with shopping She picked up email very quickly and corresponds with tons of people, she was always a big letter writer and sends cards to everyone for every occassion, so email was right up her alley.

My dad has never really used the computer, but says he wants to learn how to type letters on it. I did talk him into taking items to sell to one of those places that sells your things for you on ebay for a percentage. He was pretty happy with the amount of money he was getting from that, so I'd like to see him learn to do it for himself. Not sure if I can get him to that point anytime soon though.

Went to King Soopers and spent $33.22. Receipt says I saved 19%

Total spent this month = $383.35

Finished reading the library book The Blue Rose by Antony Eglin. Mystery. Ok won't read another book by this author, wasn't that interesting.

I have another goal to add to my financial goals

Reallocate my investments from 10% cash/bonds, 90% stocks to 15% cash/bonds, 85% stocks. The closer I get to retirement the more stable I need my investments to be, but I still need them to grow quite a bit too, so I'm slowly changing percentages.

walked with mom for 50 min

Had a great day. Loved watching nieces open presents. They really like the stuff I got them. My mom loved the Victorian Lady lamp I got her. Not sure how my dad felt about the leaf blower. My brother was blown away about the number of items I gave him. I gave him a huge box of food, plus freebies that I've been saving. When he opened the box my sister said, "You have to teach me how to do that" I told her it's pretty easy, but it takes time and attention.

Ate way too much, especially sweets. Dad grilled steaks and they were perfect. Everyone left about 3 and I stayed to play games with grandma and my parents.

I got mostly money since I couldn't think of anything I wanted. Nothing wrong with that

I finished reading the library book The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. Political/Economics. Excellent book, I highly recommend this one. It was easy to read too.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a really wonderful day and remember to tell everyone important that you love them. If at no other time, I try to make a point of letting people how much I love and appreciate them at Christmas. Before they give me gifts, of course

I walked with mom for 55 min it was really nice, didn't even need a coat. It was 50 degrees and I wore a sweater.

My sister invited the whole family over for dinner tonight, but I told her I'd had enough of people this week. I know I'm weird, but because I spend so much time alone I guess I get stressed out when I'm around a lot of people for too many days in a row. I went to mom's to visit grandma on Monday, and again on Wednesday when the nieces were there, then spent the day at work in meeting after meeting on Tuesday. The shower installers were here on Thursday. And I plan to spend all day tomorrow with my family so I just didn't want to be around a big group of people tonight. My family thinks I'm anti-social and maybe I am, but I consider it more along the lines of knowing myself and what works for me.

I had a very relaxing day which I enjoyed a great deal. I read my book Matt by Leigh Greenwood. Romance. Ok Read another hundred pages of the World is Flat.

I had leftover Turkey, bean and noodle soup. I just finished watching The Year Without a Santa Clause. Love that show, but the songs get trapped in my head and drive me nuts. I also got to watch the cartoon Grinch another favorite.

I'm really looking forward to watching my nieces open their presents tomorrow. That's always my favorite part of Christmas anymore.

walked with mom for 55 min. I guess one of my nieces messed up her computer last time they were there so I spent an hour fixing it back to the way she likes it. I removed the programs they downloaded. That seems very rude to me to download something on someone else's computer without asking. I told her to tell them not to do that.

Had another vacation day. This is nice to have 5 days off

Went to the library and picked up my holds then went to McDonalds for lunch. Spent $7.07

Total spent this month = #352.13

Read another 100 pages of The World is Flat.

Finished reading the library book Chill Factor by Rachel Caine. Supernatural. Very good, third in the series.

I was trying to find The Year Without a Santa Claus playing on TV somewhere but no luck so far. That's my favorite Christmas show. I try to watch it every year.

walked with mom for 35 min

The shower installer guys came today and put my new base, shower caddy and acrylic walls in, they brought the wrong shower doors so now have to come back next Tuesday to install those. I like the shower and I like the way it looks, but I'm definetely not impressed with the overall experience. I ordered the shower on Oct 17 and was told it would be a month, maybe less. Well it was 6 weeks and I had to call twice to get that first appointment. Then they canceled twice and finally showed up late today, and now have to come back next week. I might recommend this type of shower install to someone else, but I wouldn't recommend this company. I don't know how they expect to stay in business, when it's such a competitive market.

I used another vacation day today and got all my presents wrapped. I had my dad come over and pick up my brothers package because it was too heavy for me to carry after I put everything in the box. It was a big box a little larger than a copier paper box. I filled it to the brim with the food items I got him and all the freebies I've been saving. It'll take him a half hour to look through everything.

Sent off my December Walgreens rebate for $10

Finished listening to the library book on tape Flash by Jayne Ann Krentz. Romance. Very good

Read about a 100 more pages of the World is Flat.

Finished reading the library book Heat Stroke by Rachel Caine. Supernatural. Very good, second in the series.

I made Turkey, bean, noodle soup today. I couldn't find a recipe I thought looked really good, so I basically just put stuff together.

I combined pinto beans and white beans, chicken broth, celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt and pepper, turkey and noodles and a little bit of hot sauce. I thought it tasted pretty good. I have enough left for 3 more meals. I didn't pay attention to how much of each ingredient I used, so don't know the cost per serving.

I'm not doing so good with my glycemic diet. Every either makes me candy or cookies or big meals or I just have no willpower. Will try to do better after Christmas.

walked with mom for 35 min

I went to mom's for dinner tonight, she had enchiladas, yummy. She has my nieces and my grandmother spending the night, so I went over to play games. I started reading the World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. It's a really interesting book and easy to read. Anyways I was talking about some of it's premises with my nieces. Basically how they need to be careful when they pick their careers because they will be competing against everyone in the whole world. We had a really good conversation about careers and life and how the world works and the things they are studying right now. I love that, exchanging ideas and seeing how they think, having actual conversations, they are getting to the age where you don't talk at them as much as talk with them. The youngest niece is really clever, she has a tricky mind and comes up with brilliant things that are different from everyone else. The oldest niece is a humanitarian, she feels everyone's pain.

One of the things the book talks about, that I thought was different is that there is a call center for some McDonalds now. What happens is someone drives up to a McDonalds and places their order to a call center that might be two states away. The drive through takes a picture of the person taking the order and sends it with the order to the kitchen, then they make it and match up the picture and give the person their order. Then they throw the picture away. They said it increases their productivity by 30% and decreased foods errors to only 2%. Pretty weird. Last time I was at Wal-Mart they put in a self-service checkout that even reads coupons. Pretty soon there won't even be low-level/entry jobs for school kids and retirees to do, except maybe working at call centers. The world is changing so fast, I just hope I can keep up for the next 5 years and then be able to retire.

went into the office today, so many meetings and brainstorming sessions, really tired. I think brain work is more tiring than physical work I know when I went to school even though I enjoyed learning new things it was exhausting to spend all day learning.

Spent $7.05 on dinner at Wendy's

Total spent this month = $345.06

Good mail day today. Pinecone survey check for $5, Noxema rebate check for $3.99 and sample of Tylenol EZ tabs from Wal-Mart. And then there was the bad mail a notice from the Electric company about rate increases in January. $1.00 for fixed cost increases and 2.2% for KWH. I guess I'll get one from the gas company next. I already got a letter from them saying the budget account is going to be adjusted next month due to higher natural gas prices. I currently have a small credit with them, so it will be interesting to see what the increase will be.

Finished reading my book Pursuit by Thomas Perry. Mystery. Very good.

walked with mom for 35 min

Spent $1.84 at the post office

Total spent this month = $338.01

Thanks for the book suggestion robex. I couldn't find the book in my local library so I put a hold on it through the Inter-Library loan system.

My grandmother is staying at my mom's house this week until after Christmas, so I went over there tonight to visit with her. Had dinner and played cards.

I finally decided on my Financial goals for 2006

Fully fund 401K - 15,000
Save 4000 for 2007 Roth IRA (already have the money saved for 2006 investment in January)
Pay down mortgage from 135,598.11 to 120,000.00
Put 5000 in I-bonds for girls college
Put 4000 in emergency fund
Go on Canada train trip and spend < 3000.00 (I have 2500.00 of this already saved)
Save 1800 towards new car fund
Increase net worth by 60,000 - this will be tricky because it mostly depends on the stock market.

It's a pretty aggressive target, but I think I can make everything except the net worth and that's up to the market, and providing nothing serious happens where I have to divert money from one area to another.

Spent 1.25 on a newspaper.

Total spent this month = $336.17

Redeemed my points at Citi card for two $50 GCs to Barnes and Noble

Fixed the turkey I got in the SHARE package yesterday, it was good, had boiled potatoes, green beans and two rolls with it and had a small piece of the apple pie for dessert. All very good. I have enough turkey for about 10 more meals. I think I'll try to find a turkey noodle soup recipe to try out. I had an excellent chicken noodle soup that I got at Souper Salad last time I went.

Sold another book at half com for 2.50