Mmmm mmmm good! Campbell's tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich - not much better on a cold winter's evening. Though it's not that terribly cold yet - at least not like they were predicting (Freeze warnings, etc.) It at least gave me a good reason to make some soup tonight.

I did my weight lifting routine today. To make my routine a little shorter, as well as work a little harder, I upped my weights and lowered the reps. It felt like a pretty good workout. Two of the exercises I think I'll increase the weight next time, but keep the rest the same.

Work was okay today. I am worried about one of the surveyor's though. I talked to Candice on Thursday, but have not heard from her since then. She was supposed to come into the office today or yesterday to download her work, and get her new assignments. I left a number of messages, as did the employment agency. I really hope she's okay. She's a single mom with the cutest little girl.

After work I stopped by the employment agency to pick up my check and I talked to Lynn. I mentioned to her about wanting to make sure that I'm able to get some temp jobs to fill in the hours in case my hours get cut back again in the supervisory position. She told me that wouldn't be a problem, just let them know what I need. Then I also mentioned that I although I'm more than happy for any and all temp jobs, what I would really like would be a long-term permenant job. She told me that she thinks that may be a very good possibility!! Before I went in I was getting the down in the dumps, despairing feeling, but after talking with her for a few minutes I felt so much better and so much more hopeful.

Dad was in a bit of a mood tonight. We went to Kroger's to do some grocery shopping and he asked me how much I thought we would spend. I was at a bit of a loss as how to answer. Finally I told him that it depended on how much he decided to get of the things that weren't free after coupon. Dad "grumble, grumble" "grumble, grumble". Then finally I just said, well well, the milk and bread will be about $5, then if we get lets say 5 boxes of GG veggies, that'd be another $5, then however many pudding boxes you want ... That at last seemed to mullify him. He ended up getting ~$35 worth of groceries for ~$16.

When I checked my bank account today, I noticed a renewal charge from one of the dating sites. Well, I definitely didn't want to renew at that site, and hadn't even realized that my membership was up for renewal. So I went to the site and it took about half an hour to figure out how to contact them. I wrote them an email teling them that I could not afford the renewal fee and that I thought it was rotten that 1)there was no notice sent to me letting me know that my account was up for renewal (thus giving me a chance to cancel if need be) 2) that there was no option in the account settings where you can say you don't want to auto renew, and 3) that there was no phone number to contact a real human being to discuss this. Oh, I also mentioned that another very rival site *does* do all those things. Within about two hours I had an email telling me that they had refunded my renewal fee and cancled my account (like I had asked.) Once I have a permenant job I might start looking again, but until then I think its pretty much a waste of time.

Oh! When I checked my bank account I also noticed that a transfer I had made from ING had already arrived. I'm using that money for my credit card - the purchase of the Gazelle, along with paying some more of it down so its not so close to its limit. I pay twice or more the mininum every month, although I do have the money in ING where I could pay it off all at once - it's just hard giving up the numbers in my ING account. I know money wise it makes more $cents to not have CC debt (esp at 21%!!!) versus the minimal 3.5% savings rate, but I still like seeing those numbers in my ING account. So anyway, the transfer went much faster than I thought it would, so I upped the date of my CC payment which will save a little bit of interest.

BTW - I've had this card now since 2002 and have never had a late payment. I have asked three times for my interest rate to be lowered - and each time it ends up going UP instead of down!!! I would dearly love to get a different CC - but again, that is where a real, steady permenant job comes into play.

This is quite long enough now. I probably ought to be heading off to bed. Tomorrow is my Pilates day.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura