August 15, 2008
Pictures from Portland
Some deliciousness from a little Cuban cafe we visited:
Ropa Vieja
Cafe Jerez
Triple Berry Chocolate Cake
Cafe Jerez
Triple Berry Chocolate Cake
family
Farewell to the best boy in the world
About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Read MoreAugust 14, 2008
I <3 Google Docs
Living under a rock, as usual, I’ve only just discovered Google Docs. I’m now using it regularly to update my resumes and track my PayPerPost posts and the accounts the money goes into. It’s awesome! I kept thinking that I needed to keep tabs on how much money went into each account since I’m rotating in increments of 100/100/50, but hadn’t bothered to set up a system beforehand. Turns out keeping track in your head? Not really a great method of accounting. You’d think I’d know that by now, right?
Besides a modicum of laziness, my pessimism decided PPP would take as long as Google Adsense to build up any significant amount (2 years and counting!!) but I’ve actually broken the $100 mark with PPP so far, and hope to continue full steam ahead.
So, knowing that the amounts in my accounts (especially the Travel Fund) would constantly fluctuate, I started an Excel sheet listing the date of the post, the post number, the approval date, the payout date, the payout amount, the running balance, the account that the payout would go to, the balance in the specific account, and a tranfer date so I’d know when the funds went from PayPal to my bank account. Whew!
So far, the only thing that bothers me is that they only give the post number in the actual PayPal transaction. It doesn’t appear in the post history, the email notification of approval or payout, or anywhere else. That’s a little aggravating, so I added a post title column just so to clear up identification issues.
Discombobulated
As much fun as some of the travel has been, I’m starting to feel a bit turned around by so much of it. Already, I’ve got to pack tonight for another trip, this time for a wedding up north. Of course I’m looking forward to seeing and spending time with people but there’s been scarcely a moment to breathe between trips (or blog!)
I’m looking forward to a weekend or two of peace and quiet to catch up with myself.
I did get a nice 30 minute workout in last night. Spent some time on the treadmill, broken up by chasing the dog around the yard or being chased by him, and worked with some free weights for a while. It’s hot enough that it’s not hard to break a sweat, but at least some of that was from actually working out. The dog joined me because he needs a workout too, but I get nervous playing the chase game with him, he’s still a big galumph and tails me too closely. He nearly took me down last night and I’m not sure if that’s because he meant to or because he sprang too closely. Anyway, if I end up with some major injuries caused by falling during a run, you can blame the dog.
Also, I managed to fit in some studying before and after dinner. It wasn’t a ton, but it was good brain food.
Yodlee’s acting funny. It refuses to retrieve ING account information.
Regarding work: *sigh* All I can say is, I’m Kim Possible, “so not the drama.”
Lastly: I love Bin Bin rice crackers. (aka: MSG crackers, to some folks.)
An awfully cooperative crop
Our tomatoes, while subject to a few cracks and holes early on, have been a most satisfying crop so far. It’s not just that they fruited so quickly, but they’re ripening very sedately. I was expecting a long wait, a sudden ripening and a rush to eat all the produce before they went bad. Instead, at most, one or two are ready for picking at a time, a few days apart.
I just picked a newly blushing one, and a still yellow one on my way into the house to make dinner. There are two very light yellow/orange tomatoes still on the vine that’ll be ready in a couple of days, with a multitude of green tomatoes varying from a wee thumb-sized one to a double-fisted behemoth.
I’d say we’ve picked an average of three to five tomatoes per week for the past three weeks. They’re no more than one or two pounds’ worth depending on when we pick them, so that’s about an average of $3 per week since our supermarket sells them for about $3/lb.
Considering the only expenditures we made were labor in replanting the poor vines several times thanks to the dog’s romping, and watering, I’d say this was well worth the trouble. (I don’t know if my dad’s doing anything them while I’m gone to make the vines produce so well and so quickly, but I’ll assume he’s not.)
August 13, 2008
I’m back; OR was great!
Please excuse the lack of posting, I’ve been back for a couple days but inundated with work and work-related issues.
The travel was a bit insane, as evidenced by the 14 delays and overbooked planes, but thankfully the return trip was much less eventful. They only asked for volunteers, they didn’t actually have to bump anyone. Call it foolish but I actually put my name in thinking that it’d be great to get two free round trip tickets from the one free trip. Of course, it’s just for mainland travel, so I couldn’t finally make a free trip to Maui or anything, but still, it’d be cool.
We had a great weekend, but more on that later. I’d forgotten my camera so I had to take pictures on my cousin’s camera.
August 9, 2008
Right on time
Another delay, that is. At this rate, we’ll never have enough time to properly hike the Multnomah Falls area. Boo.
We had to change gates as well which is great because I’m further away from that enticing Mango store.
Oooh I see our plane….
I’m curious how people blog from their Blackberries with links and such. I can’t put together a proper, interesting post with links or pictures with my phone. Lucky that I can blog at all, of course, just wondering what skills I require to do it for real.
Travel update: delays, delays
Friday night, an announcement: My departing flight was delayed last night for potentially two hours. This would make me miss my connecting flight so I could go home and try again in the morning or take this flight and rebook the connecting.
Decision: I didn’t want to repeat the airport dropoff dance in the morning so I waited out the delay and booked the first flight out the next morning. Lucky for me, BF was around so he could put me up for the night, and I would be halfway to my destination by morning instead of travelling all day Saturday. If he hadn’t been available, I would have been able to book a distressed passenger rate hotel room for the night for about $45. Not in the budget!
This morning, checking in for my flight, the first one of the morning, the check in kiosk asked if I’d volunteer to be bumped if necessary. I was curious so I hit “yes” and it automatically wait-listed me! Wait! Wait! I didn’t mean that! I was just *curious!!* ahhhh. I got to the gate late because the security line was insanely long and the gate agents were super happy to see me because I was officially a volunteer. Reluctant, I asked what they had in the way of flights. If I got there by noon, I was willing. If not? Nu-uh! It was hard enough to get one day off, I can’t be wasting all my time in the airport!
Then it turned out the by-noon flight I was promised didn’t have a seat and I could no longer get on my original flight because the smaller planes have 20 fewer seats than the first plane and ten people were still sadly standing in the corral with no seats. Better to choose my fate as best i can rather than hope to be squeezed in. I wonder if this system is really cost efficient for them? They had to give something between ten to twenty free flights, and here I am, flying on BF’s free travel voucher to begin with!
The next flight out is 11:05, so here I sit, waiting for my seat assignment with my free travel voucher tucked in my bag. *sigh* At least the free voucher means I can possibly come back another time and see her again.
Oooh! I think they gave me a first class seat. *spiffy*