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
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April 21, 2008
Oh no, not me, and not today. My coworker! For the past few days in a row, C2’s been wearing some really cute sweaters, and I finally caught on that I don’t ever remember seeing them before. When I asked if she went shopping, she stopped dead with the guiltiest look I’ve ever seen: “Yee…eeess….. I couldn’t resist! All my clothes were in boxes and I couldn’t find anything! …. I shopped online ….. and I like everything I got!”
I swear, that girl is the funniest thing. She acted SO guilty! I’m not the budget police! Oh wait, I kind of am. But I don’t care if she goes shopping, that’s just more clothes I can borrow later š
So another dangerous way to fall prey to the shopping bug, and spend too much money, is to pack away your clothes in boxes for a few days. Who knew?
April 19, 2008
It might only be twice over, actually. I was geeking it up gamer style on the train the other day, as my friend and I were giggling over this Photoshopped but oh so appropriate image from Joystiq:
SO TRUE.
And since I’ve been in the mood for the stocks and bonds side of PF geekery, it occurred to me that it’d be awesome to own some Nintendo stock. I discovered that Nintendo (NTDOY.pk) isn’t even on the NYSE! They’re traded on the Pink Sheets, which I’d never even heard of. So now I’m trying to figure out just how difficult it is to get on the Pink Sheets just so I can own a few shares of NTDOY. š I think they’re trading at approximately $68/share, unless I totally misread the Sheets. Can anyone understand why the company that put out the DS and the million iterations of it isn’t even on the NYSE? Is it just because they’re foreign, or just because they don’t want to make their budgets/accounting public? Hmmm….
I’ve applied for my Treasury Direct account, and encountered my first problem. They couldn’t verify my identity. It was all correctly filled out, so I don’t know what the problem really was, but luckily, we have a credit union on my work site, and I was able to walk over there and get a signature guarantee form filled out yesterday. That’s pretty awesome, considering I’m never home during business hours so couldn’t have gotten the bank to do it. And free! I love free help.
The signature guarantee’s on its way, via postal mail, which is a bit aggravating because I don’t know that they’ll send me whatever paperwork I need in time to buy my I bonds.
And now I keep staring at my email, peeking in the window, hoping that the nice folks over there send me an Access key to my brand spankin’ new Treasury Direct account right quick.
April 18, 2008
Oy, it’s gorg-eous outside and I’m sleepy!
I’d like to thank the top five blogs for linking to or sending the most traffic my way over the past month:
1. Sense to Dollars This lucky gal’s on her way to New Zealand!
2. Wanda from Well-Heeled, with a Mission And THIS lucky gal’s planning a trip to Hawaii!
3. Saving Diva from Saving For a Home of My Own This lady’s well on her way to buying her own home ….
4. ntbeachnc from Beachgirl’s Budget Blog While this chica’s fast becoming as financially stable as she possibly can before a move.
5. Ms. M&P from My Money and Politics Ms. M&P’s been MIA for a little while now, and I miss her!
These don’t include the last two days, I’m pretty new to Google Analytics and I think I did something bad to it. Whoops!
April 17, 2008
Well well, Treasury Direct, we meet again. And this time, you have something up your sleeve. You’ve got some I-bonds that I’d like to take a look at. Not only can I purchase up to $5000 worth of online I-bonds at a total interest rate of 4.68%, I only have to hold them for a year to get nearly as much interest as my once vaunted Emigrant Direct and IngDirect savings accounts yielded not so long ago. If the interest rate holds, I could even hold them for longer than a year. Actually, as a commenter on Jonathon’s post pointed out, the latter six months of the year will have a higher interest rate than the first six months, so I would plan to hold the bond an extra three months so that my penalty of three months’ interest is taken from the tail end, at a presumably lower rate. I don’t mind the maximum cap of $5000, either, because that’s fully one third of my emergency fund and I wouldn’t feel comfortable losing any more liquidity from the emergency fund than that. (Jonathon of MyMoneyBlog explains Series I savings bonds much better than I can.)
But wait, Treasury Direct has yet another ace up its sleeve! I can also convert my paper bonds into electronic bonds! I have a single Series EE bond hidden away in my room, the prize for a scholarship back in my junior year of high school before the Kiwanis figured out that a Series EE bond is worthless to a high school grad paying for college expenses since it takes 30 years to fully mature. It’s already been ten years (mein Gott!) but I still have another 20 years to hope I don’t lose the dang thing. Now, however, I needn’t hope any longer. I can convert that baby into an electronic bond, and monitor it online! The paper bond can become a bit of scrapbook fodder.
I’ll be back, I have to open a Treasure Direct account right now. If for nothing else, converting my single solitary Series EE bond will be totally worth it.
For the last four hours of work, visions of a hotel room overlooking the beach, literally with a balcony right over the sand, sun, and waves were all I could think about. Running shoes, a stack of books, a beach chair, sunglasses and a hat. That’s all I need this weekend. Just get away from everyone and everything, all the crazy at home, the crazy at work; widen that space of time in between work and home into a whole day of just relaxing without anyone chattering at me, asking questions, or expecting attention. Ahhhh ….. that sounds vunderbar!
Friend A offered me a room at her place, Friend E wants me to come visit her out of state. Married Friend has a room for me. That’s all great, and I’ll take them all up on it one of these days. But probably not this weekend. I’m all prickly inside and can’t even muster the energy to imagine being a good guest.
BoyDucky offered me his other free SW ticket to come up and visit this weekend. Otherwise, the next opportunity he and I’ll have to visit isn’t until mid-May. He understands I may really need time to myself so I can make the decision when I’m ready. The beauty of the Green Pass Must Ride is that I can call to make the reservation and show up at the ticket counter with practically no notice and no extra fees to pay.
What to do … what to do …
Ar! The weather this weekend is not looking promising anywhere. I will definitely not be getting my beach day.
April 16, 2008
As usual, I didn’t watch the show, but some pictures caught my eye and I wanted to share them.
Carrie Underwood completely fascinates me these days. She’s this classically blonde beauty with rather age-appropriate, elegant and striking fashion sense. I’m sure not all her picks are home runs, but whenever I see photos of her, I can’t help but wonder how much of her beauty is from artfully applied make-up, and how much is glowing youth. The fact that I can’t tell impresses me to no end. (Or is a function of my own inability to apply makeup.) Either way, I LOVE her dress here. The color is so rich, and the cut looks wonderful on her. I’m not usually a fan of jewels on clothing because it’s easy for them to look tacky, but these compliment her dress.
Again, the blondes have it. I can’t decide if I like how the front of the dress flows outward in the front, but I think I dislike that style entirely. The color, however, is fabulous. I find Taylor Swift’s attractiveness is slightly more exotic than wholesome Carrie.
AUGH. Just … AUGH. Because it can’t all be beauty, we have cautionary tales as well. Or cautionary photos. Please never do something like that to yourself.
