I'd actually ( I can't believe I'm saying this) prefer some snow to our yucky rain. But I've made a big pot of soup for tomorrow's dinner, did a little shopping, and need to spend some time on household things tonight.

January always seems endless to me.

Our financial goals for the week are simple--eat up what's in the fridge and get ready to start the semester. I'm only on campus two days a week this term which should save on gas and some other expenses. But we need to stay on top of spending to allow for my decreased work load.

I'm still going on the between-terms organizing projects. I'm finally getting caught up on my household chores and have sold my daughter's skates and another book today.

Today's organizing errands call for a trip to the post office, to the sporting goods store to check on jacket prices, and to the home store for an ornament holder. I've stored Christmas ornaments in an old Jack Daniels box for 25 years and I'm treating myself to a new plastic bin.

Then I'm dumping stuff at the Salvation Army. What fabulous fun!

Hey! Just got the Amazon notification that another book sold! Hooray!

I had other shopping planned for today, but we're getting hit with a big blast of snow, so I've spent a chunk of the morning reorganizing the shelves in the basement, including the canned food etc shelves.

They look terrific and should help with my
"Eat our Way Through the Freezer" plan for the upcoming months.

I have a couple of books sold to deliver to the post office so may venture out into the whiteness.

I'm starting a new ebay/amazon challenge for myself--kickstarted by a recent $100 or so in sales.

Here's to the spirit of organization! Long may it last!

Our new Central A/C was installed yesterday and I paid for it today.

We had a funny conversation with the HVAC guy about how we wanted to finance it. I told him I'd just write him a check and he about fell over.

Today's is my DH's birthday and we had a lovely dinner, he got some nice gifts, and all in all, it was a great day.

I've sold another old textbook, so add $54 to my ebay sales. I'm so pleased to check another goal off! Basement refinishing here we come!

It's just hit me what a funny word "cooler" is--so many meanings!

We've been thinking about installing central A/C in our house for years, and this morning, I signed the contract.

It's not that much money, and I upgraded to get the energy star model with the federal rebate. We've all got allergies and I'm sick of the hassle with the room-size units.

It's been a cold spring in Wisconsin, so I think I'll list the room units on Craigs List when when we get a heat wave.

We bought a bunch of stuff at Ace Hardware today--weed and feed and other lawn stuff mostly.
I'm reminded again how much I like the idea of an online rebate. Now true, it's better if they just mark the darn things down, but I did the rebate on their website in about one minute. And it means $12 back!

DH has been ill all weekend with a bad throat, so we didn't get as much done as I'd have liked. But still--some annoying errands done and plenty of lazing around.

Last night we watched a German mini-series called Dresden that was very powerful about the fire bombing of Dresden during WWII. I highly recommend it (well, most of it except for the sappy romance).

After listening to endless discussion on construction projects that are "shovel ready," I've decided we have three projects at that point.

1. Central Air conditioning
2. Basement Remodeling
3. Tankless Water Heater

We're ready to roll and to hire people on all three of these when the government decides to give us an economic stimulus.

What are your shovel-ready projects?

Here's the link to that amazingly awful video on SoCal trash outs. If this isn't an indictment of consumerist culture, but still so sad on so many levels.


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec08/foreclosures_10-23.html

Aren't those two words that just set your souls aflame? Yeah, me too.
But since DH is in England, I decided to do a little surprise for him. And we're so sad that he'd probably get more excited about a clean garage than almost (ahem, almost) anything else.
I freecycled some more of DD's clothes today, and have filled two garbage cans with all sorts of junk from the garage. I broke down and bought one of those Rubbermaid tool organizers which is pretty ok.
Another hour and I'll be done.

On a less happy note, my adjunct job "forgot" to submit my earnings total for last month, so I have to wait another very broke month until they pay me. Grrrr

Has any out there tried this?

I've used miles for regular flights and rental cars before, but I played around with the American Airlines site trying to use up some miles for hotels in Seattle or Vancouver. They're happy to try to talk you into this--but the amount of miles was incredible. For a 5-night stay at a nice downtown Vancouver hotel, they wanted, (hold your breath) 168,000 miles.

It's such an incredible rip off! I'm a firm and fast believer in priceline for last minute hotels, but I'd like to use some of these excess miles.

The Eternal February!
At least that's what it feels like around here.
No big financial news to report except we have a snowblower belt to return, and the lovely customer service folks at Thrift books refunded me in total for a book that arrived with a broken binding.

Off to a party tonight, and as much as I'd like to buy an appetizer, I'm hoping I can think of a cheap yet cheerful one.

I sold a book on Amazon, so I'd like to add that to our castle fund, along with a few survey nickels.