Today's excitement was non-financial in nature. My second class watched a low-speed chase today. About 10am there was a huge racket, and some kid ran halfway into my classroom carrying something. He ran right back out again, followed by 3 or 4 guys shouting at him. Apparently he'd nabbed something from one of the Business School labs, and it was the IT guys chasing him. Almost immediately the fire door alarm went off, and we all ran to the window to see him sprinting across the street followed by some very slow university cops.

After that my huge drugstore savings and double couponing seemed a bit less exciting.

The federal government may be a disaster, but thankfully the state government appears to have deposited my university paycheck, my first paycheck since June.

Underlying money anxiety continues here. DH's job appears increasingly shaky;many of the contractors have been let go, and some have been asked to go part time.
My adjunct evening job appears to be fine, although their enrollments are down. I usually have three or four classes a year there, plus my capstone project piecework, but it may only be two classes next year. I may have to scout around for more work come next spring.

Unless DH's job settles down, I think we'll likely abandon some of my sidebar goals. Thinking, thinking, thinking.

DD and I have been down for days with some kind of nasty flu-like cold. It hit me like a tons of bricks on Monday, but I was determined to push through it. Man, that was a stupid idea. By Monday night I was miserable. On Tuesday I tried to go to school, but left after my office hours, and DD came home after 30 minutes at school. Last night she slept 14 hours, and I cancelled my classes today and switched all the assignments and discussions on line. I am better now, but I've never had a mere cold hit me like that. Yeesh.

We spent nothing for days. I suspect DH will have it tomorrow. Everyone blames the weather, but that makes no sense to me.

I'm going to school tomorrow as I'm sick of me in sweats and a tee shirt. Keep your fingers crossed for my London enrollments. We seem a bit shaky to me.

What might may been a fairly minor, but destructive, skirmish today turned into a victory.

My class was rolling right along, plenty of participation, some jokes, lots of student involvement--except for the gentleman in the top right-hand corner of the room who was obviously (to me) texting with his phone on his lap.

Last year, I called a student out about the phone issue, and we immediately squared off. It created a tension that lasted far too long. Today, I had a better idea. I ask them to read my "Classroom Policies and Procedures" document with the syllabus, but I suspect many do not. As the student's texting continued, at a suitable pause, I decided this might be the optimum time to review those policies.

I projected the policies, read them aloud, and emphasized that a phone infraction counted as an absence, and detailed the absence penalties. Facing the screen rather than the students as I read, I could hear a rustle of a backpack unzipping and the phone being jammed into the bag. I assured them if this infraction happened today, I was giving them a free pass, but next time, the rules apply.

Every single question I asked for the rest of the class, the guilty party has his hand up, ready to respond.

An ally, not an enemy. Everyone's happy.

It's been a crazy first week back at school. All my classes are full, I'm mentoring new instructors, and both DH and DD are back at school too.

Tomorrow should be fun. It's our Study Abroad Fair and last year's Londoners have promised to drop in. I'm very excited to see them and recruit more for this spring. I'll be there all day, and I seem to remember they bring us lunch. At least I hope so!

It's been so busy that it's been a very low-spending week. Long may it continue.

With a bit over a month to go until my regular paycheck, and with major expenses still looming, I'm calling a halt to summer spending. Our budget is still reeling from the painting, the washer, the brake repair, and the still-to-come chimney expense.

We've paid my DH's fall tuition, and he's delighted to be a returning p-t student. We'll still have to pay for his books, but I know all the tricks for cheap textbooks.

DD's back-to-school shopping is done. If the weather doesn't get any cooler, she can just wear a swimsuit every day. We dropped off some things in her locker yesterday, and it was at least 90 degrees in her school.

I have nothing to buy for back-to-school fun, except tonight's haircut and color. We're going to meet with some prospective London students this afternoon, but we're packing a lunch. We have another meeting tomorrow and will follow the same drill.


Once I get my fall materials squared away, I'll list some things on ebay. In minor joy, my "Shop to Earn" motel stays credited on Swagbucks today.

While my evening tutoring gig is over, my new evening class started last night. I was slated for a class of seven, but only had five bodies in the room. One of those bodies was so attached to her phone that I predict I will hurl it against the wall by the end of the eight-week term. Three times last night I told her to put it away. Yes, these are college students.

The staff there is trying VERY hard to get me to do another tutoring gig a couple nights a week in addition to my class there. Yet with the regular university starting up, I really feel that I can't. My DD struggles with homework completion, and two nights a week is too much during the school year. And I can't get any of my university colleagues to take it either. It's not that we don't need the cash; we all do. But fall teaching is hard going. No one has time for an "extra" job, yet in the spring and summer, we all need the work.

Although it's very hot here, I'm finally getting that fall feeling.

I dared have DD's feet measured today at Infamous Footwear. She has gone from a children's 3 to an adult 6 1/2 which explains something about the fit of her Tevas. We spent (gulp) $230 on shoes using coupons, their BOGO 1/2 off, and all sort of other shenanigans.

But she had to have a couple of pairs of ordinary shoes, and although that total is staggering, it does include two pairs of Clarks that were already half price before the other deals. Then PE shoes, a size 7 pair of Bear Traps, a pair of work shoes for me, and deeply discounted wedges since I have bought no new shoes this summer and was feeling terribly neglected.

But still. I guess I got the blues and plenty of sole.

We seem to be having one of those spells when at least one member of our household isn't sleeping properly. I was up till 3am last night, tossing and turning. DH had several nights like that as did DD. I have no idea why. But we managed to get DD all registered for school this morning to the tune of $103 in fees and another $100 in lunch money.

My budget is almost as much of a shambles as our sleeping lately. Back-to School expenses come the same month as our household insurance and DH's life insurance. If only I had coupons and a Red Card for those.

Off to drown my woes in half price Baskin Robbins. Ignore my weight loss goal on the sidebar.

I finally got to Chase yesterday to open the savings account that required the $10,000 minimum but which had a bonus of $150. Momcents Laura was right; the money does have to stay there six months, but that's fine. And the account has to stay open. Neither of those are an issue, and although I still hate big banks, the personal banker was lovely and took all my refusals to open checking, investment, home equity loans, or mortgages in stride.

I'm liking finding these chunks of money. I wonder what I can find this week?

The local Chase branch seems to think I'm a multi-millionaire. I get a checking offer at least once a month, and now they've started calling me with checking offers. But as an ethical protest against big banks, I switched to the university credit union, and have no intention of switching.

But today's offer got my attention. Leave $10,000 in a savings account with them for 90 days and get $150 bonus. I can do that, and although they're betting on my inertia, it's too good to pass up.

I intend to spend the evening poring over the fine print.

My dear husband is what you might call a history freak. He LOVES British history, carries around back-breaking volumes on Lord Salisbury, Disraeli, WWI etc. A big part of him has always wanted to either teach or just have a better formal education in history. He's a software developer and hasn't had a real history class since high school. British universities don't do general education classes, so he had none there.

Things are difficult at work lately; he's been putting in lots of extra hours, hates his new bus-less commute, and perhaps has a little of the "I'm 50" blahs. So Saturday night I said to him, "Why not enroll in a history class at my university?" Within two hours we had him applying for admission and sending off the fee. I suspect he won't choose it as a new career, but I think he'll really enjoy the experience. It's funny; we were talking with friends about this tonight, and half of them just couldn't understand why he'd do that. Couldn't he just read a book? The other half understood perfectly. Yeah, it'll cost a little cash, but speaking as one who changed careers from a lucrative secure one to an initially tenuous low-paid one, I know what it means to be passionate about a topic. I hope he loves it and continues. School begins in the fall semester with just a single class.

Today was a pretty errand-intense day. I had grocery shopping, the post office, CVS, and the nursery all in one push, then a heap of other smaller errands.

Happily the post office destination was to mail books that I sold to my list-serv friends. Altogether it totaled $18, with more to come soon.

The most fun was the nursery. I've always wanted a big patch of day lilies around our mailbox post, and they were on sale, so I bought some of those as well as herbs, tomatoes, and some beautiful Russian sage for the spot where we evicted the barberry. I think the color will look nice with the muted purple trim to come.

DH loves a Saturday night steak dinner, but tonight we grilled mahi-mahi with fruit salsa. So summery and delicious!

That was me yesterday. It was one of those days when every minor thing went wrong, from my DH dropping a container of juice on the floor, to a terse e-mail from one of DD's teachers, to her stress about a math test, to NONE of the A/V working in my classroom last night, followed by the vending machine eating my money.

None of this was major, but I did make a big cocktail when I got home. Those annoyance, coupled with the dog's cone-induced moping has made this an unpleasant household.

But today is a new day and I'm intending to make it better. More decluttering, more sleep, and a lovely Amazon gift card from e-miles.

I'm hoping for a solid productive day, and it's started out fine. We've been having multiple problems with our ATT U-verse service. It's been out twice since we got home, and they have a hard time fixing it.

My husband is ready to cancel the whole thing, so I called U-verse this morning to see if they'd adjust our bill. They did--the whole month's bill. So while I'm still less than thrilled with the internet service, at least their customer service is ok.

I had a work tutorial on the new web portal Friday night. If you asked people to come in on Friday night, wouldn't you feed them? They didn't, but I was glad to help a colleague by offering to drive. He and his wife are always scraping their budget. They have two kids, both work as adjunct instructors, and their youngest had leukemia a couple years ago. They were also the happy recipients of more of DD's outgrown clothes. I cleaned my car thoroughly before we went out, and it was pure pleasure driving a clean car.

Saturday we went to a local grocer's anniversary celebration and all ate free burgers, cake, and samples while shopping for some good bargains. Then on to a furniture store where we're considering buying a TV stand. We have an old ugly armoire cabinet that we all hate. I'm on the verge of buying the new one, but not quite yet.


Dinner last night was with my university women, again they're all broke, but the place we always go had a loyalty card we've been using that miraculously scored us a $50 credit which we used to treat the brokest of them all and take a healthy deduction from our bill. I missed them while I was in England, and it was great to see them.

The news about folks unable to withdraw money from their Cypriot banks today reminded me of several things that have happened here. Two of my students got their debit cards "skimmed" in one of those nasty add-ons to ATMs. I've heard several horror stories from people on the bus too. I've again reminded myself to only use ATMs inside bank lobbies.

One of my colleagues had another ATM eat his debit card, and when he contacted the bank to tell them, they mistakenly also put a hold on this credit card too. He was left with no access to money or credit all weekend, and had a heck of a time straightening it out yesterday. The bad bank (like my experience before I left) was Wells Fargo who can look forward to being dumped by both of us when we return home.

But there's good news too. One of my flakier students (and that's saying a lot) left her purse on a London bus. She realized it within minutes, but the bus was long gone. Yet within two hours, the woman sitting next to her found her on Facebook, messaged her, and they met up to retrieve her purse.

As a cautionary note, she's put a hold on those cards for a bit, just in case this was too good to be true, but the woman returned the entire purse which included 100 pounds in cash. Amazing.

Wow, I'm amazed at how quickly this time has flown. I'm 2/3 of the way through my English sojourn, and since last writing have been to Prague, along with day trips to Oxford and other spots.

I fell in love with Prague as I suspect most people do. What a beautiful city. The only significant money I spent there was on a few meals since a very hearty Euro-style breakfast came with the hotel--and some museum admissions. I really enjoyed the Mucha Museum, and although I thought I knew something about this style of work, I'd never heard of him. The Kafka Museum has my favorite though;really suited to his work.

Mostly I enjoyed walking around. How women walk on those cobbled streets in high heels, I'll never know. I spent much of the time with a London colleague who has become a very comfortable friend. I bought a few little bits of jewelry on the Charles Bridge. Sunday's tour was much more sobering as the students visited a town obliterated by the Nazis and then the concentration camp at Terezin.

We got home very late and exhausted from the emotionally draining day. I slept late last Monday, then went for a long long walk.

More soon!

I've been watching (with rapt interest) the BBC programs featuring famous British chef, James Martin, as he addresses the lousy and expensive hospital food inn NHS hospitals. I think we all can imagine the problems with rising food costs, inadequate training, and other issues.

The most appalling part was the massive amount of food waste because (partly) of the elimination of individual patient ordering. That, coupled with not running the kitchen like a business and lack of adequate oversight has caused lots of problems. At one hospital, they were not even cooking from recipes.

But, of course, James Martin is coming in to save the day. This link shows some of it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/0/21519469

I wasn't going to post again today, but have been following this story with amazement. The local governments here are under a lot of financial pressure, and many libraries have closed. But folks in this part of London took matters into their own hands with amazing results:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/library-campaigners-save-friern-barnet-branch

It made me think of all the avid library users on SA--and Laura the librarian. It's so awful that libraries are so often first victims of budget cuts. But I like how this story comes out.

After some assorted troubles, students overloaded with luggage, very problematic snow in London, all has actually gone well, My rental flat is cute and nice, the landlady is great, no real problems. I ventured out into the snow and did a bit of grocery shopping--realizing i forgot how to shop for one.

Going to catch up with some needed sleep now.
More tomorrow...

I made myself go to the university library today to grade papers; this in an attempt to disallow distractions and get more done. It worked pretty well, except the person seated next to me was a German professor giving oral exams to her beginning students. I tried to tune them out, but their German was so awful, I started laughing a couple of times.

All I spent was $2 on coffee and $$ on the postage for my ebay sales. Yes, CCF, I finally sold some stuff!

Forecast for the weekend: More paper grading.

After all the flu talk on the news, I'm finally getting a flu shot tomorrow. How about the rest of you?

And I've been beat, excited about London, tired from the semester, overloaded literally and figuratively, and haven't been sleeping well.

So, I'm off to bed. No significant other news.

The spending today was limited to taking my colleague out to lunch. I've worked with her for years, she about to retire, and she's the one who clued me in to the study abroad in London. We had a great chat, she offered some useful tips, and it really made the day.
I also bought her a bottle of wine as a thank you for all her help.

These last days of the term are always such a slog. But by this time next week, one of my classes will be finished, with the other four finishing the following day.

I'd like to leave the semester on the side of the road right now and start Christmas and London planning, but I'm happy that it's all so close.

Christmas planning can start on Friday?

I hesitate to even begin my litany of recent spending. It's been ugly, but mostly necessary.
While we were in MN Thanksgiving weekend my car window decided to come off the track. I kind of freaked out since I was merging onto the freeway when it happened, but I returned to my brother's house and we managed to at least get the window up to fend against the 18 degree cold. That was fixed with a new motor and lots of work to the tune of $600.
Next? Our scheduled three window installation. We expected that, but the additional $1200 left after the deposit was not the best timing.
Next? Our hot water heating in our family room went out. The tank leaked in the basement, drained the system, and knocked the whole thing out. Chock up another $1400.
Need more? The Tuesday before Thanksgiving the blasted dishwasher (always troublesome) started smoking and burning. A service call would be at least $200 according to the repair service, and then the wheels snapped off the bottom shelf too. It's only 10 years old, but we've had nothing but problems with it. I went out on Wednesday and bought a new one.

I think that's enough ugliness for now, but the university did manage to pay me. Except now it's all gone.

Another 10 days before the semester ends. Even all that spending, as wretched as it is, pales in comparison with the joy of my impending freedom.

Finally--I've listed two dozen things on ebay today. I'm afraid it might be a bad ebay week with everyone shopping on Black Friday, but I need to get this stuff moving out of here. If it doesn't sell, I'm going to freecycle it. The end.

Eager to get through two days of teaching and on to Thanksgiving. Lots to do!

Eeeks, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Teaching the dread overload of classes has meant nothing optional has been accomplished in months, and by optional I mean completely putting the summer sandals away, anything beyond minimal cleaning, no filing, planning, or adequate sleep.

But I'm finally feeling good about the semester, and I'll be caught up with grading over Thanksgiving. The study abroad meetings have also eaten a lot of time, but I won't complain about them.

Only one piece of bad news: the "expletive deleted" university STILL hasn't paid me for one class. Nothing. I've kicked up a fuss, told them it was illegal, enraged a half dozen people, and considered filing a grievance. Will they pay for for three months work in December? Grrr.

I'll try to be back more soon; I miss you guys!

But that waning harvest moon is still beautiful here.

I'm looking forward to not going in to the university tomorrow. I've been so buried in work, I just want to stay home and grade in sweats--maybe cook some soup or get some housework done.

Not a lot new here, except a concerning spam e-mail. The night I booked my UK trip I got an e-mail that I figured was a confirmation from British Air. I never unzipped it, just figured it was the e-ticket as it said. Today I decided to get my travel file in order, but my virus check IDed it as having a virus. When I went to the BA website and entered the source locator, it couldn't find my reservation. So I went back to my original reservation and found a different source locator. I called BA who said it was not theirs, then quickly checked my credit card bill--but no unauthorized activity. It can't be a coincidence that virus-laden spam materialized the same time I booked?

I'm STILL fighting with the university about my overload payment. I've resigned myself to not having even a slim chance of it before December, but I'm continuing to pursue it, just on principle.

I might be odd, but I love these dark rainy evenings. I've been cooking pots of soup, doing laundry, grading papers, and all sorts of home things.

Tonight's goals are simple: Complete tomorrow's quiz, grade another section of papers, read a capstone project, take two photos for ebay listings. I LOVE the idea of putting the ebay cash into my London fund.

One month into the school year, I am making October 1 resolutions. I need more sleep, more walking, and a better schedule.

I have been successful on a couple of fronts. I listed a few things on ebay over the weekend, and both have bids. I got DD to bed earlier tonight and have drawn up a nightly schedule to make our household run more smoothly. I'm ready for tomorrow's classes.

We also had lots of fun at dinner last night, and DD and I had a beautiful afternoon with my ufriends at the pumpkin farm today. Splendid weather all weekend. Long may it last.

DH and I started brainstorming a preliminary plan for the upcoming semester. Tuesday is the deadline for my study abroad apps. Cross your fingers we have enough!