Some Updates and General Musings

The good news of the weekend was coming home and finding the refund of the overpayment to my mortgage in my mail box. I skipped my Monday morning coffee treat and deposited that baby to my primary bank at 8:30 AM.

After a conversation with two of my UK friends, I bit the bullet and downloaded a UK map for my GPS. A couple of us are going to do a "girls only" road trip. Problem, the girls driving with me are "directionless", they don't drive that much and don't own a GPS. Since I hate getting lost and we are going to places I've never been, I bought the map and downloaded it this am. I'm not wild about spending an additional $75, but I think this will be money well spent and save the hassle of my traveling companions reading maps while I drive.

My elderly friend is buying a house. I've posted about her before. This is scary. She has a multitude of health issues, can't live alone, and has been in and out of the hospital and nursing/rehab facilities for the past few months. For a variety of reasons way to complicated to go into, she had a falling out with our mutual friend Dee with whom she was living with and decided to go out on her own. I spoke to both my elderly friend and to Dee about this. Dee and I agree, elderly friend can not live on her own and needs more hands on care. The problem is elderly friend does not see, or more than likely, does not want to see that she needs more skilled medical care. Her answer is to move out on her own. Honestly folks, I hope I don't get the phone call that elderly friend was found dead in her home (cheery Monday thought is it not?). Dee and I are not the only ones who think this way, Elderly friends other friends have commented on her health situation as well.

I can't complain too much about the drain on my account. As pointed out, I'm getting about 99% of the money back. I just wanted to get on the plane with 'cash in hand'. Not getting a check from my second job is a bit of a bummer as well. I knew that the payroll situation would be addressed by March 1st, but I'm outta here on Thursday and the barn does not do direct deposit. Ah well, it will be waiting for me when I get home and I won't blow the money on things like beer and food and cheap tacky souvenirs.

Plus I did spend money on me this past two weeks. I got my hair done at the salon, I got a 4 pack of 2G SD cards at Costco (only $28USD), I used one for my GPS map download and one for my camera (my old SD card was 512MB). I bought a new blanket to leave at the weekend job. Not only do I have a shelf in the kitchen, I have two drawers in a dresser for clothes, etc. I got queen sized lightweight down blanket. I love down duvets and can use this blanket at home come summer. The weekend job house actually keeps the heat on 65F day and night. At my house, the heat only gets to 55F! I also bought two pans (total cost $30) at Marshall’s to keep at the second job house. These pans are the not the best things on the market, but “compliment” the ones that are there and I’ll be able to do things like make a boat load of soup or stew and then pack it up to take it home for my lunches for the week. Since I’m not a DIY diva, I finally found a handyman to do a few things around the house, fix my exterior porch light that was dangerously hanging off the side of the house, fix/repair a gate and a couple other little projects that I just have not been able to get to. I’d really love it if this handyman person can give me a decent quote on my bathroom work. A vacation, a new computer AND my bathroom redone. Good lord, I’d be in pig spit heaven! Keep your fingers crossed.