You'd Think....

You'd think with all the jobs I have (current tally falls at 6) I'd be less worried about whether or not I'm making enough money every month.

But it's not true. The reason I *have* so many jobs is because I constantly feel like I'm just not making enough money. Or at least, not ample amounts.  I have enough, to be sure. I'm paying all my bills.

I just had to fork out a thousand dollars in income tax. >_<
Now I feel like my savings plan is all shot to pieces and light years behind where it should be. Forgetting, of course, that I'm actually still *ahead* of my original savings plan because of the plentiful return I got last year that went straight into a savings account....
Don't talk technicalities like that to me.
I have less money in my savings account than I did 2 weeks ago.
This is backwards motion, people!

And NOW that I'm living on my own again, and paying bills like a champ, and buying my own groceries and signing up for important things like health insurance, I can't put aside enormous chunks of savings every month anymore.
But I still *want* to....
Which means I'm picking up little jobs here and there, and formatting resumes for people, and doing bookkeeping in  my spare time....
Harhar.


Yet despite all this - I just can't seem to get into the office on time when I'm working for my Dad.
*sigh*
Motivation.
It strikes at odd moments.

Finished. Pretty much.

And a couple of awesome photos my amazingly talented and photographically skilled elder brother took of Mom and Dad's place.

^_^

And, actually - the kitchen is even *more* finished now then it was at that point. The backsplash is all in, and the crown molding on the cabinets has been installed.

And Dad moved the garbage can out of sight.

Still - looks pretty nice, don' it?

Vicarious Adventures

So, my family is kinda awesome - and they travel all over the place and do cool things. And I get copies of all their pictures, and pretend I'm awesome too. ^_^

My parents and kid sister are in Ethiopia right now!! YAY!

So I'm sharing some of their photos. ENJOY!

The Newness of New Things!!

I am starting the year off with a ridiculous spending spree it would appear.

I've bought some music. I bought jeans (skinny jeans - I have succumbed to the convenience of not trying to fold and wrap the extra fabric into my new Christmas boots). I bought a completely unnecessary skirt.  I bought an accounting software program - on the loose premise that this will help me budget and thereby save money (hah).

I bought a new laptop. Ironically so that the accounting software would work properly. And also because I was running out of space on the other one. I had to remove a few programs so I could save a picture file. *heh*  And I accidentally got rid of my calculator in the process. >_<

It was on sale. It isn't Windows 8 - it was a demo model - and they needed to get rid of it. Seeing as I have no desire to fiddle about with Windows 8 just yet, this worked really well for me.
I have spent the past several days getting it set up and moving all sorts of files over. In fact, I am waiting patiently (or maybe not quite so patiently) for a bunch of those files to finish being copied over so that I can start to *use* this laptop for work.

I may not actually accomplish this today, but here's hoping!

The Rage of the Ellipses

Ok. I am a fan of using ellipses inappropriately. I lengthen out pauses, hint at hesitation, trail off without finishing, imply hidden meanings and significant looks, and basically use it like a giant repeating comma in all sorts of casual writings.

But it really, *really* bothers me when something that is supposed to be professional uses an ellipses that way.

If you are going to be professional - be professional. If you are going to be casual, don't expect us to take you seriously.

One more website spotted, dotted, peppered and broken up with repetitious periods, and I just might freak out.

And if you didn't know it was called an ellipsis: you are not allowed to use it at all.

Crusty crusty lovely bread

I found an amazing little recipe. For bread. No-knead bread, which wasn't really what drew me to it - I don't  mind kneading dough.

What made this one so awesome for me, is you put the dough in the fridge, and just bake one loaf at a time - at any size you prefer.
Which means that I can have fresh bread any day of the week, without having to worry about it going moldy before I can finish it, because I can make just a little loaf, AND I don't have to make a bunch of bread at once and then freeze and thaw and invariably re-freeze as I realize I'm not going to be able to eat it all in time.....

I found the recipe here,  and so far I have made 2 loaves.  The recipe makes enough enough dough for probably about 8 loaves at the size I am making them (a 'grapefruit' sized ball of dough at a time).

It is delicious.
And wonderful.
And I put 2 cups of brown flour in. And then I totally lost track of how many cups of white flour I had put in, and couldn't remember if I'd started counting back at 1, or kept going at 3.... so I mixed it, and it was dry, and I added another cup of water, and it seems to have turned out just fine.
^_^

But the next time I make it will be a whole new experience all over again.
^_~

Epistle to self:

Dear Clumsy Self;

Would you kindly not make any more messes? I wasn't actually planning on mopping the floor this evening.

It's a good thing we are all done making and eating supper now isn't it? That'll make this request a whole lot easier.

Also - you burnt my foot.

Respectfully yours, in the hopes that we can come to a non-violent compromise,

Self.

I made turkey burgers again. ^_^

I cooked them in a frying pan this time instead of on the George Foreman. There were a lot more juices.  Flipping the burgers became a messy and hazardous undertaking.

I also did not learn from my brother's experience and decided I could handle eating 2 of these.

O_O