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 More
August 19, 2008
We hiked Multnomah Falls ….
visited the second VooDoo donut location ….
And even tried out the bacon maple bar! I thought it’d be the grossest thing EVER but … it wasn’t. The idea still creeps me out, though.
Speaking of creepy …. this is the world’s creepiest bathroom at Rimsky-Korsakoffee House:
This is what you see when you walk in the door and turn right. AUGH!
In all fairness, the House itself was quaint, cute, quirky as all get out, and all that stuff, but I will never EVER use that bathroom.
August 18, 2008
I was on the hunt for a copy of a book that was recently recommended: Carrie Black’s Basic Black.
I checked Paperbackswap.com first, since I’ve got some credits on that site, but no dice. I checked retailmenot.com for Borders.com coupons in case they still have that dandy 40% off coupon, no go there either.
I went to Amazon, and found that my preference, the paperback, isn’t out until September 9th, and Amazon’s currently offering a pre-order option with a Price Guarantee. If you haven’t heard of it before, the details are as follows:
Pre-order Price Guarantee
Amazon.com’s price for not-yet-released items sometimes changes between the time the item is listed for sale and the time it is released and shipped. Whenever you pre-order a book, CD, video, DVD, software, or video game, the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you placed your order and the end of the day of the release date. A pre-order price guarantee message will appear on your Order Summary during the checkout process. If you use 1-Click ordering, pre-order price protection will be automatically applied. The order summary in Your Account will reflect the lowest price within 24 hours of the price change.
Terms and Conditions:
- Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to items sold by Amazon.com, and not to items (or prices) offered by other sellers on our site. Does not apply to any products purchased at Amazon.com’s other sites, including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp, Amazon.ca, or any other web site operated by Amazon.com or its affiliates.
- Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to not-yet-released books, CDs, videos, DVDs, software, and video games sold by Amazon.com. It does not apply to other product lines or to items that have already been released.
- Pre-order Price Guarantee applies only to qualifying items displaying the offer message on their product detail pages. Items that do not display the offer message do not qualify, regardless of the nature of the items.
- If your order enters the shipping process before the release date and the price is lowered before the end of the day of the release date, we will automatically refund your credit card for the difference between the price you were charged and the release-date price. If you did not use a credit card to pay for your order, please contact Customer Service.
The price ranges from $15 (after shipping) for a used copy of the hardcover, to $17 for a new copy from Amazon and it qualifies for Super Saver Shipping.
Because it was published in 2007 (so, recently) and I don’t have a whole lot of faith in our library, I checked our local library catalogue online without getting my hopes up and voila! They have it! I should really check there first. Unfortunately, my work schedule just changed today and I’m going to be stuck at work late every night for the rest of this month. Gar. Maybe my cousin will be able to make a stop for me.
A whole pile of old clothing that I was sure I’d Goodwilled last year turned up in an older suitcase that I haven’t used in years. It’s a backpack zipped onto another backpack style, so I use that one for international or very long lengthy trips. (*sigh* Memories of my trip to Italy so many many moons ago.) As it turns out, that purple dress I was lamenting the sacrifice of was part of that pile, and I sorted through the clothes juuuust to be sure that there was nothing in there that I regretted purging. There was just one pair of cargo pants I’d outgrown, but strangely fit again, that I need to take needle and thread to, and a very light blue and white dress I might just want as a beach cover-up.
The rest of the clothing definitely needs to go to another home. Good grief, I found clothes in there from junior high and early high school years and I can’t believe I wore that stuff! Nothing was completely-and-totally hideous, but they were all slightly ill-fitting. I was too small for regular sizes and hadn’t discovered the tailor; that didn’t happen until after college. Yes, I am a total late bloomer. Heck, I’m still not sure I’ve bloomed completely! Also, it seems there’s physical evidence that I used to believe in buying things that were a bargain because they were on sale. Thank heavens I’ve outgrown that phase. I just wish that my mother had taught me not to do that in the first place, y’know?
It’s a huge relief to understand now that it’s worth paying a bit more for something higher quality, that’s very close to my size, and paying a bit more on top of that to have it fitted to my body. Let’s face it, I’m never going to be a standard size, very few of us actually are, so it just makes sense not to buy a whole lot of junk in search of a few good pieces.
Lessons learned.
August 17, 2008
Whew. Home again, and it’s a bit of an oven here. The wedding was gorgeous, the food was delicious and dancing was good ole ’60s music, with a dash of Prince and Jackson (Michael) for the young ‘uns. Must have got some weird taste in music sinceI knew just about every song the DJ played, while our retired friend kept exclaiming, “this is my kind of music!”
I got a lot of career advice from said retired friend. She was pretty high up the chain in the corporate world before she retired and had a lot of insight and opinions to share. Also, a book recommendation, and an introduction to some of her good friends who are in business or banking. She’s very intent on mentoring us and helping us expand our networks through her contacts, which is mighty generous of her.
Have discovered the Furminator and absolutely love it. Thirty dollars for a dog brush?? But it works so well! *internal debate* This would be dead useful for my big fuzzball of a dog, she’s so furry that she gets clumpy when I don’t brush her enough. Will consider it.
Time for bed to start the week off right, hope y’all had a great weekend!
August 15, 2008
Some deliciousness from a little Cuban cafe we visited:
Ropa Vieja
Cafe Jerez
Triple Berry Chocolate Cake
August 14, 2008
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.
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.)
