December 30, 2019
Fall! September 23 through December 21
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What I read
Tamora Pierce. I just discovered this author and dove in headfirst.
Circle of Magic quartet (meant for ages 9-11): Sandry’s Book, Tris’s Book, Daja’s Book, Briar’s Book
The Circle Opens is the next quartet but the library didn’t have them so I moved onto the quartet after that, The Circle Reforged, which was a little confusing but not insurmountable: The Will of the Empress and Melting Stones. I’d like to fill in all the gaps now.
Then I moved into The Song of the Lioness quartet. Only Alanna: The First Adventure and In the Hand of the Goddess were available but I want to read more.
Then I found the Beka Cooper trilogy which precedes The Song of the Lioness by 200 years: Terrier, Bloodhound, Mastiff, which I loved. But I’ll tell you what, the last choice in the end of Mastiff had me steamed! It did not take long for me to become thoroughly emotionally invested. That last reveal felt completely illogical and not in keeping with the character. I won’t say anymore in case someone else out there hasn’t yet discovered these books but GR.
My mom always thought it was weird of me to be so emotionally invested in what I read.
Tanya Huff
I don’t know how I’ve read sci fi and fantasy for 30 years and NOT read any of Tanya’s books but I’m happy to make up for lost time now. The library only had the Tony Foster Series so that’s where I started: Smoke and Shadows, Smoke and Mirrors, Smoke and Ashes
I don’t do horror as a general rule, so Smoke and Mirrors verged on a bit much for me, but the rest of the supernatural bits were in my wheelhouse.
Angela Duckworth
Grit
I’m annoyed that I ran out of time to read this while the loan was available – I’d waited about 6 months for my turn to come up! I’ll have to wait another 18 weeks to pick it up where I left off but it was very readable.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Gods of Jade and Shadow
Elizabeth Bear
Neither steampunk nor Jack the Ripper yarns are typically my interests but I keep an open mind and this one was quite good: Karen Memory
Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War: this was gutting, intense read.
Rivers Solomon
An Unkindness of Ghosts. WOW. This book was a whole lot. It was subtle but a friend pointed out that the protagonist’s sensory experiences, and physicality, were so well done and true to life for a person on the spectrum and it was really incredibly fascinating to glimpse how that works. I couldn’t put the book down, I read it in one single go.
The Deep. I picked up this book without a notion of the plot and it gutted me. It was so well written and well worth a read.
Where we went
We finally managed to pull together a trip to Napa to visit a friend and it was such a wonderful weekend off. I didn’t bring my laptop, we ate tacos for most of our meals, we enjoyed our friend’s company. We stopped off at a park to eat our taco truck lunch and JB made friends with a random child there – this is a skill I’ve never had and am always bemused by.
What I watched
I discovered The Mentalist is streaming on Prime and since I’d never seen it in its entirety, I decided to give it a try. Cho is my favorite.
We also watched Tangled and JB called me Mother Gothel for weeks after – I leave it to you to speculate why.
:: I’m trying to decide whether to keep sharing my reading and such in these quarterly votes. What say you? Yea/Nay? Move some of these into the monthly updates?
December 9, 2019
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property (saved for future repairs ) and investing in dividend stocks (reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks and cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running and I’ve added a way to support the blog in the sidebar to the right!
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income with passive income before my health prevents me from working because I know from my Mom’s experience that relying on disability is incredibly tough or near impossible here in CA.
***
Dividend income. We received $545.98 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $3,609.38.
Drips of money. I made $9 from a User Interview, woo! I’m 74% of the way to my next $25 Target gift card from Bing, almost woo! We also sold an old shirt on Poshmark, netting $2. Wheee!
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November 4, 2019
***FYI: I am collecting donations for our Lakota families until Nov 17th. Details in the Giving paragraph of this post. Half of any proceeds from the blog during this time (see sidebar) will also be added to those donations.***
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks. That money is saved for future repairs or reinvested, respectively. We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. Our side income comes from Swagbucks and cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running and I’ve added a way to support the blog in the sidebar.
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income by the time my health prevents me from working.
***
Dividend income. We received $184 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $3,063.40. We are a long way from covering even one month of expenses with passive income. This means I’m still on the hook for working full time for quite some time. That worries me because most of my days are bad days, now.
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October 14, 2019
***FYI: I will be collecting donations for our Lakota families until Nov 17th. Details in the Giving paragraph. Half of any proceeds from the blog during this time (see sidebar) will also be added to those donations.***
Summer! June 21st through September 23 2019
What I read
This reading summer started off strong with some fantastic writers:
Samantha Shannon
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Rebecca Roanhorse
Storm of Locusts
I can barely handle apocalyptic fiction these days since it feels too much like real life but Rebecca’s books are just too good to skip until this mess is over. There are gods and the world we made for ourselves, and really, you just have to read it.
Seanan McGuire
That ain’t Witchcraft
I adore this entire series and would like many more stories of the Price family. Many many many, please.
Michelle Obama
Becoming
I could have screenshotted the entire biography to text to PiC with my thoughts … I refrained when I realized that it would not end. (more…)
October 7, 2019
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks. That money is saved for future repairs and reinvested, respectively. We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. Our side income comes from Swagbucks and cash back sites (Ebates, Mr. Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running and I’ve added a way to support the blog in the sidebar to the right!
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income by the time my health prevents me from working.
***
Dividend income. We received $313 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $2,879.40.
Bank bonuses. HSBC finally paid up! I’m so glad to be done with them. They are the absolute worst.
ALSO our long awaited tax refund also finally arrived! Woo! I promptly deposited it into our anemic account meant for paying the property taxes – it’s way behind the mark it should have hit in order to pay it in full on time.
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September 2, 2019
On Money
I’ve added a little widget at the top of the site to offer readers a way to support the blog and will add to that as I experiment with creating neat things! If you enjoy the neighborhood, consider supporting the blog.
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks. That money is saved for future repairs or reinvested, respectively. We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. Our side income comes from Swagbucks and cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running.
The long term goal is to replace our day job income by the time my health prevents me from working.
***
Dividend income. We received $485 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $2566.
Bank bonuses came due. Citi paid promptly. I transferred our money out and closed my account without a hiccup.
HSBC, however, was the absolute pits from start to finish. The date for the payouts came and went without a peep from them so I had to open investigations into both accounts. They required about 15x more time than any other bonus situation and neither of us want to deal with them again. I’m still waiting….
Amazon money: It’s rare that I do a paying survey but picked up one at the end of the month earning $35. Nice. We are slowly reducing our dependence on Amazon but it’s a balance.
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August 5, 2019
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have some tiny cash flow we don’t touch from an investment property and investing in dividend stocks. We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. Our side income comes from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates), and tracking physical activity through Achievement (my introduction to it). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a tiny commission to keep the blog running.
Our big long term goal is to replace our day job income before my health prevents me from working.
***
Dividend income. We received $184 in dividends this month. Our year to date net dividends are $2,080.42. I currently reinvest all our dividends.
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