October 31, 2008
In a fit of craftiness, I amateurishly cut up my nerdy-as-all-get-out gamer X-men Legends sleep shirt and made it a strapless dress.
There was an in-between phase when it was a t-shirt dress and it was infinitely cuter, because I’d inadvertently sewn perfect armholes, but it was too short. In my brainstorm, it was meant to be strapless to make it long enough to be decent, but I liked the interim phase much better, had I been able to stretch the material lengthwise, somehow. Unfortunately, that middle phase photo is lost and gone forever (dreadful sorry, Clementine) because I’m daft and took the photo without a memory card.
Before:
After:
Note: In the making of this shirt, I’ve discovered that I’m a terrible tailor and depend entirely on luck. And, had it not been too short, it would have fit as a tshirt dress, so depending on luck isn’t actually a terrible plan (see: armholes). But it was too short. So never mind that.
get a free shower gel with any $10 purchase (good for in-store purchase only). Expires 11/05/08. I don’t shop there anymore, but if you were planning to anyway, remember to take this coupon along for an extra treat!
October 30, 2008
On days when I can’t shake a massive headache, like every day this week, or when aches and pains of any other sort are plaguing me, wee little steps are enough.
The following companies will no longer be sending me paper statements:
Wamu/J.P. Morgan Chase (2)
Citibank (6, plus the 5 linked credit card accounts)
AT&T
Emigrant Direct (4)
ING Direct (4)
I was thwarted again by American Express – they want some number that I gave them at the time of opening my account — 7 years ago. I haven’t a clue what they’re talking about so that’ll require a phone call.
Happily, my Vanguard accounts were switched to paperless some time ago, saving me $10/year on my Roth IRA. I need to rollover my really old Rollover IRA from Wamu, it once cost $15/year, but now it’s shot up to $25.
October 29, 2008
(Yes, I’m very exclamatory lately.)
Because not everything is doom and gloom around here, I finally got my memory card to cough up some photos I’d taken a while ago.
The birthday purse! With this, I’m set for just about forever on handbags:
Don’t you love how the top closes? Very clever, very functional.
Because we like self-torture around here, it’s much better than inflicted torture, the price points for a couple of my portfolio choices:
Target Retirement 2045
08/29/2008 $13.52
09/12/2008 $13.14
09/26/2008 $12.78
10/10/2008 $9.70
10/27/2008 $8.96
International Value Fund
08/29/2008 $35.08
09/12/2008 $33.13
09/26/2008 $32.66
10/10/2008 $23.78
10/27/2008 $20.64
And my asset mix is slowly adjusting to a higher percentage of bonds than stocks. We’re at a 25/75 allocation now. It’s a natural progression as my stocks drop half their value, and my tiny little Roth IRA valiantly stands up to the market’s battering.
October 28, 2008
Now this is satisfying! That’s a 1000+ page book placed for scale next to the full-to-bursting bag of paperwork I shredded in my first go-’round.
This is the second stack that I was working on this weekend:
And lest anyone mistakenly believe that I’m totally dedicated to this project, it’s 97% escapism. As long as I’m still being productive, I can justify not working on other, more important but much more depressing projects like thinking about my future. *tsk*
Then again, getting rid of that much junk so far is keeping the spirits up and inspiration on how to creatively re-locate stuff. That’s not bad, either.
Evidently, the universe cares about me getting my work done, and your collective opinions: the meeting has been canceled!
Fantastic!
