Finally got our December vacation booked...of course at the last minute but that seems to always be how it ends up.

We will be heading to Hawaii for an 11 Day cruise in a week and a half. This has got to be the best deal that we have ever got on a cruise...$399 for 11 days!! Thats equals $37 a day per person for hotel (room on the ship), all of the food you can possibly eat (ie: the cost for all food is included whether you go the the restaurants, buffets or have room service deliver), all of the entertainment (movies, shows, etc), plus every morning that you wake up you are in a different port. Airfare was reasonable ($400 per person from Seattle) as well. The only problem is that I booked the cruise first then the airfare (thinking it would be nice to sightsee for a couple of days before the cruise leaves), then got to the hotel booking part and found that every room on the island appears to be booked! There was a couple of rooms available--at $785 and $825 PER NIGHT so I'm thinking we may be sleeping on the beach... At least it is 85 degrees there.

Overall we are pretty much sold on cruise vacations because when you figure the per day cost you really can't beat it (lodging, food, entertainment, activities included) compared to vacations in most major cities.

Today has been great. We are literally snowed in (only about 5 inches of snow but for here that equates to two feet of snow in the Northeast, everything grinds to a halt here with any accumulation of snow since we are so unused to it). So besides being a quiet Sunday the snow gave me a reason to keep huddled up next to my computer instead of out at the malls. The result--lots of work done Hoping to be snowed in tomorrow and, if requests are being taken, snowed in on Tuesday as well so I can skip a couple of meetings and finish even more projects.

Going on day three of Thanksgiving leftovers. 'Nuff said...

Hubby bought me a scanner for our anniversary (I'm not sure if I blogged about it but after deciding to get divorced, we decided to work things out--things are going fine and we will have our 20 year anniversary on Friday). Anyway, I guess, for the same reason I like reading peoples blogs, I like listening to the scanner...not to be nosy but to see what's happening in other people's lives (my life is pretty boring in comparison to everyone elses!). I have a whole new respect for police officers...many calls that I have heard include the dispatcher coming back on the line telling the officer the person that they are pulling over has felony warrants, suspended licenses, etc. Not a situation I would want to walk into ever. Scary!

I wish you all a great Thanksgiving. Knowing how frugal we all are I'm sure we will be sharing our leftover stories for a week. Anyway, back to the turkey...just wanted to stop by and wish you a great holiday!

Actually the season starts around Halloween ($30 for candy this year!) and ends right after New Years. So after all of my diligent saving and cost cutting measures throughout the year it comes to about this spot on the calendar when I want to throw in the towel. Everything is set for Thanksgiving (that was about $80 at the grocery store today but I intend to have leftovers for a couple of weeks thereafter) and now Im looking at my Christmas list, checking it twice and feeling faint.

Wow! Love this list stuff! Never knew there were so many interesting people in the world. Which got me to thinking...
If everyone we saw was wearing a sandwich board with their list prominently displayed I think the whole world would get along much better. People tend to judge others in a glance not realizing how many interesting, courageous, funny, amazing people they walk by every day. Every list I read today had something that made me say wow, something that I could relate to and something that amazed me. Thanx to all for sharing...you are all amazing people!!

And on a financial note...if everyone had their financial status on their sandwich board, Im sure many would be suprised/amazed/shocked. Like if the guy in the Armani suit driving the BWM had "NET WORTH -$285,000" on his board people wouldn't be so quick to judge him as a success while they look disparagingly at the "average" looking elderly woman who reuses baggies but has a net worth of +$1,500,000.

I read our illustrious blogmaster’s “50 Things” and thought that was such a great idea. What better way for people to get to know you (I bet even his friends didn’t even know all of that about him!)? Anyway, since I am not nearly as interesting, here is my list of 20 things…

1) I hate tags. Tags on clothes, tags on bedding, tags on towels…they all get removed as soon as I purchase the item.
2) Flying scares me. I love to travel but on the way there I am in a state of sheer panic!
3) I met my husband when I delivered a pizza to him. I was 19 and worked for Dominos at the time.
4) I’ve met a few famous people in my life: Wayne Brady, Olga Korbut and Jaya ( a famous singer in the Philippines).
5) Speaking of singing and the Philippines, I can sing fluently in Tagalog (I’ve even sang on stage at a couple of big venues in Manila) but I can’t speak the language at all.
6) I’m anemic. I’ve been anemic for as long as I can remember. Iron pills don’t really work. I chew ice like a fiend.
7) I detest being an employee. I always need to be running the show. Fortunately I’ve been self employed most of my life.
8) I admire people who do well in math and science even though I’m lousy at both.
9) Chocolate makes my face break out. Always. I ate two chocolate truffles a couple of days ago and am suffering the consequences now .
10) My purpose in life is to help people. I’ve always been drawn to people who need help and vice versa.
11) I’m known to carry a concealed weapon (Sig 9mm).
12) I have a wide range of friends…from extreme conservatives to illegal immigrants to gun-toting rednecks.
13) I like old people. I find them interesting. Hearing about how things were sixty, seventy, eighty years ago is fascinating.
14) I love music. In my car you will find equal amounts of English, Spanish, Tagalog, Japanese and French music.
15) Sometimes I need to be more tactful. You know the main character on “Bones”? I’m like that. If something doesn’t make sense I want to know why. Unfortunately I (occasionally) say what I am thinking. One time a guy was going on and on to a group of people about how he served in Vietnam. I said “aren’t you 35?’ he said yes. I said, “well that would make you 12 years old when Saigon fell.” The conversation ended rather abruptly.
16) Psychic ability runs in my family for at least the last three generations that I know of. It comes in handy sometimes.
17) I can bake anything. I’m a lousy cook but I can bake!
18) The best compliment I ever received was from a group of guys in an Atlanta hip hop club. They said I danced “like a sister”. That’s a pretty big compliment for a red-headed white girl!
19) I like to see how people live. When we travel overseas, I would much rather walk through a neighborhood, visit someone in the hospital, or babysit a friend’s kid then hit the tourist spots.
20) I’ve read one fiction book in the last decade (Memoirs of a Geisha). All of the books I buy/check out from the library are non-fiction.


Well that’s me. I hope others will make similar lists. I love reading everyone’s blogs and this kind of “behind the scenes” info would make for even more interesting reading!

This was the strangest thing...I looked out the window today and noticed that the seeds in my bird feeder had sprouted(!) Guess either a. the birds arent eating very fast, b. i'm putting out too much seed, or c. this is what happens when you get 9" of rain in one day.

OK...this is so simple I'm not sure why I didn't think of it before. I have a main checking account that I use for everything (paying bills, buying groceries, basically all of my spending via check/debit card). This past month I started using another of my checking accounts (it's free, there are no service fees) that basically has just been sitting there empty, as my "spending" account. I put a few hundred dollars into it at the beginning of October and now use it for my disposable income spending. Now bills and big items such as airline tickets, etc. come out of the main account and I use this new account to pay for gas, food, Starbucks, clothes, gifts, etc. This has really simplified things.

I keep a running total of how much is in this new account and it has actually stopped me from spending. Today I was at the mall and previously I would have used my main account to buy a few hundred dollars worth of clothes since there is always a lot more money in that account, but by using this new account with a limited amount of funds in it, I only bought a jacket (at 40% off the clearance price). It's nice having a seprate amount of money that I can use as I want while at the same time I am aware of just how much I am spending because there is so little money in there that I can't go on a major spending spree.

My next task is to link this account to PayPal and fill up the funds in this account by EBay sales, refund checks, etc. Hopefully I will be able to keep this account topped off without having to transfer funds from my main account.