Ack Phooey

Sometimes life is such an interuption. Do this, do that. Work, work and more work. The best laid plans run amok. So much to do, so little time to do it in. Sound familar to anyone.

OK, end of vent!!

Was Bummed but Now I'm Not

My usual late night routine--make dinner, talk with S/O, play on puter. Tonight was no different other than being extremely sore from work. So I took one of my coping with pain pills, signed on, and started checking my e-mail. What a bummer!!

The past few months I have been looking into possibly monetizing my blog via PayPerPost or one of the other programs. Bummer dude man,,,,was rejected again!! (For some odd reason it really bummed me out,) BUT then I checked my dashboard and discovered I received a comment that needed moderating.

So off I went to check out the comment left. All I can say is WOW!! I am so humbled. Thank you JW you have made my day :))

You can check out JW's blog HERE

Wood: Full Cord vs Face Cord

Just a little tidbit to pass along. My partner and I do not use wood for heat but her parents do (as do many families in my neck of the woods.) Being a city transplant I never fully understood what a cord of wood was, here's the answer:

• Full Cord= 128 cu. ft= 4'x4'x8' (2'x4'x16')
• Face Cord= ? --the face of the stack is 4'x8' but depth varys which can reduce the amount of wood your actually getting 3'x4'x8'=75% of a full cord

This and That

Now that the harry scary of shopping is done, I just have a few odds and ends to pick up for stocking stuffers. Party food is ready to go minus one item. All-and-all, my shopping is done. All that is left is wrapping (YUCK!!), food prep, and cleaning. Compared to the last few year I'm done early.

Planning a trip home to Buffalo. This will be the first time that both my brother and I will be home together for the holiday in over 7 years. I haven't seen my niece and nephew in quite a while so it hopefully will be a nice 2 days. With my mum's ill health recently I think it's important for the family to be together, even if briefly.

Compared to a few days ago, I am feeling much calmer about my financials. Al tho I am not overly thrilled, I believe that I have a decent plan to cope. I just have to stick to my budget. The inspiration I receive from reading other blogs will definitely help in this area.

A few things I am am going to try in the new year:

• complete tracking of all expenditures, including play money
• explore the concept of stockpiling and adapt it to our limited living space
• once again try to grow some of our own food (hopefully I wont grow weeds this year)
• learn more about edible wild foods, especially in my own backyard
• learn to can and maybe make homemade jams
• utilize the free apples in my yard--applesauce & apple butter
• go and pick wild raspberries, blueberries, and black raspberries
• learn to make homemade yogurt--have recently found a recipe that I want to try
• explore making quark cheese--the same blog that has the yogurt recipe also talks about this cheese which sounds really interesting (will mention blog in a later post)

I am also open for any suggestions y'all may have.

This & That

I have been using my new cleaning solutions for about a week now and I'm thrilled by the results. The window cleaner has worked well, and is also working as a hard surface cleaner. Very Important in this house as I work with powdered metals and leave little black fingerprints anywhere I touch. The toilet bowl cleaner is another gem, I like it better than the commercial stuff. Have also used the straight vinegar for my rugs and kitchen floor with good results.

So far so good, altho my partner is not overly thrilled. She says the house smells like a pickle. It does at first but once the floors etc. dry there is no odor. And that is the key--NO ODOR!!

Yea Rah! Yea Rah!

I still haven't heard from the technician concerning my orthotics. I have been cleared by the insurance company to get them so at least that one major hurdle cleared. Now I just need the tech to call.

Overall my foot/ankle is much better. It's not 100%, I still have numbness in the ball of my foot and toes but the excruciating pain is gone. I do have some pain (and stiffness) but it's bearable; haven't had to take a pain pill in 3 weeks.

Been working on my budget and updated my NetWorth IQ, but more on that later. Altho there was minimal change in my net worth due to my Sharebuilders account not much to report.

Hmmm...what other little tid bits to add??

Been re-thinking my participation in get-paid-to programs. Since I have been working 62 hours a week I only have a few hours a day to play on the puter. I have cut back on the programs I'm involved with and currently looking more at on-line surveys and other possible on-line income streams.

Finally, been reading some of my favorite blogs cover-to-cover so to speak. You can find them listed under Information and Inspiration. This past week visited Trying to Make a Dollar Outta Fifteen Cents! was bummed to see they haven't posted since May 2008. Hoping that nothing is wrong and it's just life interrupting.

Started looking at Tired but Happy and if I haven't said this in a prior post, I highly recommend this blog. To get the full feel for TBH's blog you need to start at the beginning.

OMG!! Almost forgot, but this will be addressed in another post,,,some interesting experiments with food/cooking to tell y'all about too.

OK I'm done now :))