This morning I made it to the Work Force Center about 8:20. The seminar I was going there for started at 9, but I thought I'd get there early in case there was a typing test or something else I could do.

At first when I asked one of the ladies at the front desk about the seminar, she looked like she didn't know what I was talking about. Then when I told her the name of it, she was like, "Oh! WIA. Are you in the WIA?"

Trying not to sound stupid, I told her I didn't know what the WIA was. (I'm still not sure what the letters stand for!)

She told me that it was a program for people who had been laid off and want/need training in job skills in order to get a better job. Also, she told me that the seminar I came to attend was one of the requirements for the program - that most people didn't choose to attend it. Luckily I'm not most people, right?

Another lady who was nearby spoke up and told me that WIA was a great program. That it was paying for her to go through training to be a medical secretary. Not only are they paying her tuition, but they also are giving her gas cards for getting to school (and presumably a part-time job.)

Hmmm.... this sounded interesting.

I am going to attend the next orientation session on Tuesday to see if I qualify, and what all it entails. (There is a session on Monday afternoon, but I'm working at the gym then.)

I'm just thinking that going the route of being a medical secretary wouldn't be a bad idea - or at least the training for it. Will have to check into pay scales on it though.

Another possible route is to take computer training on Quickbooks or other accounting software - both of which seem to be asked for quite often in the admin asst ads I'm looking at.

****Would it be bad of me to take advantage of this program if I qualify, considering I do have financial resources available to me, while others may not??***

The second thing I learned today was at the seminar. It actually became a one-to-one session because the room it was to be held in was occupied, and the presenter only had space for one person in his cubicle. The other two rescheduled for tomorrow.

The seminar was going through the functionality of the work in Texas website. I'd already signed up on it, as well as done a good bit of exploring, but he was able to show me a lot of things I had not figured out yet. He also gave me a lot of great hints and tips.

So, my visit this morning to the Work Force Center was well worth my time - even though they don't have an official typing test.

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Accomplished today:

1. Seminar at workforce center
2. Checked Craigslist
3. trash run, dish run
4. updated blog
5. Filled gas tank - $18

*Did not exercise, nor update applications, nor cash gym check.

Thursdays goals:

1. Work at gym from 8 -3
2. Give former OM severance paperwork
3. exercise
4. update blog
5. work on resume/application info
6. Check Craigslist
7. Clean counters (kitchen and bathroom)

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This afternoon my mom treated me to seeing "Confessions of a Shopaholic." I absolutely LOVE the book series, and the movie was really pretty good too.

Afterwards we ate at TB ($3.01 for both of us!) Then went off on a wild goose chase looking for a book she needs to read before her interview on Tuesday.

My lateness getting home is partially why I did not accomplish some things I wanted to.

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I have two questions about the Stimulus bill which recently passed, and am hoping someone may know the answer(s).

1. Is Cobra being subsidized at all?
2. Is there a certain amount of UI you can make without Federal Taxes being owed?

The reason I ask, is because both items were brought to my attention as things that were being proposed as part of it, but were not confirmed as to whether they were passed.

Thanks for any info!

* I updated my Extra Monies pages, as well as my tickers.

* The gym paycheck that bounced as well as the next one I got have both been finally taken care of. I picked up my check today (which includes the $98.25 + $10 bounce fee + last two weeks work hours) and was told that I *do not need* to worry about this one bouncing. I'll be putting it in tomorrow. If it bounces, I'm going to insist on money orders from here on out.

* I bought a few groceries at Target this weekend. I wasn't paying close attention to the register, so missed my Morningstar corn dogs ringing up wrong. Luckily I checked my receipt and caught it. The lady at customer service gave me $3 in cash back. Free corndogs! Yay!

* My brother's birthday is tomorrow!! He's going to be 28 years old. He was born on the day Reagan was elected. Hopefully he'll celebrate his 28th birthday with Obama being elected.

* I've been doing quite well with not buying junkfood or eating junk at work. So well in fact, that I've lost nearly 10 pounds since my last post! (Mostly water weight I think though.)

* I'm still considering a laptop. Although a comment made by E on Thursday night when I picked up the keys to be able to open the gym on Friday's has me wondering if it is a good idea or not. He mentioned that they may have to let go of some of their employees.

* I won another weekend contest for ChaCha last week. $10 Yay!

* My mom and I did a 5k together last weekend. We both walked away with first place trophies for our age categories. ......... Of course, we were the only females competing in our respective age categories! LOL!

I was so very proud of my mom for finishing and not taking any shortcuts. We were the last two of 25 people to cross the line. My time was the same as my first 5k (43:37) and my mom finished in 50:00. (She can't run due to joint/bone problems.)

* I finally got to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was showing at a second run theatre near where we did our 5k. It cost $3 for my mom, me and my stepdad to see it. Cheap entertainment.

* I think my car's stereo speakers are dying. Today when driving home the sound kept coming in and out, getting louder and softer, going from one side to the other. First time I've noticed that.

How expensive are car stereo speakers to replace??

* I paid $2.11/gallon for gasoline today. I am loving the falling gas prices!

What is this it, you may be wondering?

Well this it is gasoline! With all the extra driving I did the past two weekends, my tank of gas just wasn't going to make thru to my usual Friday fill up.

I was starting to get a bit worried because prices were going up and up.

My gas light was on most of the way to work this morning, and then all the way home till I got to the gas station with the $3.39/gallon gas.

I bought 9.117 gallons of gas, and my Odometer was at 105,505, or 319 miles since my last fill up.

So . . my mpg was approximately 34. Not bad at all, especially considering I had my AC on some of that time.

Oh, just for comparisons sake. Another gas station near my apartment had gas for $3.59/gallon.

I noticed yesterday that some of the gas stations had gone up by 5 - 10 cents except for one. So today I decided to fill up even though I still had a good amount to get me through the weekend. I didn't want to take the chance of the $3.34 price becoming the $3.45 price of another station (or worse!)

8/22/08 Odometer: 104,917
8/29/08 Odometer: 105,185

=268 miles (trip to mom and stepdads, trip to Mckinney (Museum), regular driving)

Purchased 7.764 gallons@ $3.34 =$26.00

Mileage = 268/7764 ~29 mpg

Hmm . . that number seems off somehow. It's strange how each time I fill up, my mileage seems to be going down by one mile.
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Today was kind of frustrating at work. I was *very* busy. That is a good thing. But one of the frustrating things that happened was that I worked through my normal lunch hour to finish getting some documents certifed mailed. Then, when I took my lunch time, I had only finished eating a few minutes, when my OM saw me savoring the last few minutes of break time and was like - L, do you know DW has stuff he needs you to do? And that he said you'll have to stay here till it's done?

Arghh! Yes, I knew he had stuff he wanted me to do. I knew that it wouldn't be something that could be done quickly, and that he wanted it done before leaving for the weekend. I know she wasn't saying it to be mean or malicious or whatever, but at that point it just sat so totally wrong with me!

Then later on I was attempting to make copies of these HUGE documents. He wanted them in color. There is only the one color copier. I had managed to make one good copy, and had a second one set when the copier started whirring with a big print job. Usually I can handle that without outwardly showing any frustration. Today my frustration showed and was noticed by the person who'd sent the print job.

I know it can't be helped when there are a dozen people hooked up to the same copier/printer. Even so, it can be SO annoying when you're in the middle of a copy job to all of a sudden have a print job start up. It's nobody's fault, and can't really be helped. All the same, it still can be quite annoying.

Car trouble:

1 - My dad's GMC Jimmy - some kind of ball bearing or some such thing in his front driver side tire broke. He was here, visiting me, we were about a mile from my apartment. Took about three hours, but a friend of his brought a big trailer up and loaded his Jimmy on it. Short term fix cost about $161, long term fix (replacing whole front axle, big and small bearings, etc) cost another $900.

My dad says that the steering is so much more sharp than it had been and is glad he went ahead and did the whole shebang. His Jimmy has close to 200k miles, was bought used, and has been paid for a bit over a year.

2 - My tires -- My tires are low. I know all I need to do to fix this is find a tire pressure gauge somewhere and fill them with air. However, one of the tires had the hubcap put on in a weird way (it must be one of the newer tires) and the stem is not in a reachable spot.

So, I need to go somewhere where they have one of those tools to take the hubcap off and put it back on with the stem reahable. My dad suggests Walmart (where I bought my tires.) However, I really really don't look forward to sitting around for an hour or two just to get air in my tires -- so have been putting it off.

That one tire (with the strangely placed hubcap) is looking really low . . .

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New job:
Today was my second shift at the gym. Like last week's, it was completely uneventful. No one came in to workout . . so I had pretty much the whole time to read, or if I'd wanted to, I could have called someone and talked on my cell. The only things I really did was to fold towels that had been in the dryer, and start a new load of towels.

Last week I made it very shortly after 3:00 p.m. Today was a different story. At 2:54 p.m. my main boss saw me walking down the hallway and called me in to ask me to do some copying for him - and he needed it right then.

What was I going to say? Um, can't do that for you because it'll make me late for my other job that pays minimum wage. Yeah, that would be a NO.

So, I ended up getting there 10 minutes late. I'd told E that this was a possibility, but that I didn't think it would really happen. Of course, it did have to happen - luckily not on my first shift!

When I'm sitting in the gym wondering how I can make time pass faster . . I remind myself that the reason I'm doing this is to help me get to my house that much faster, as well as my other savings goals. That helps the time to pass just a bit more easily.

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My carpooler started making noise a couple months ago about how she didn't like the 7a.m. leaving time and that she was going to find other rides. At the time, I told her that was fine - she needed to do what suited her needs best.

So, for the last 3 weeks or so, she's been riding with me pretty sporadically. Last week she rode with me twice - didn't give me any money. This week she rode with me twice, and gave me $5.

So, it appears that $40 of my extra income pool may dwindle to more like $10 - 15, or perhaps less a month.

The only way to change that would be for me to go in everyday at 8a.m. which would mean no time to workout at the gym in the morning. Not going to happen.

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I had to fill up today. I ended up paying an extra $.21 for it because I decided to pass up the station selling for $3.39/gallon to see if the station which had been lower in price the day before would happen to be lower again today. They weren't.

So . . . $3.41/gallon
Bought: 10.449 gallons

Odometer on 8/8/08 = 104,601
Odometer on 8/22/08 = 104,917

So, mileage would be 316/1050

Which equals ~30.09 mph

That is a bit less than last time, but almost all the driving was done in town.

I was also surprised to see a number over 10 gallons when filling up. I think thats the first time I've seen it go over 10 gallons since I can remember. I really thought I had a gas tank slightly smaller than 10 gallons. Maybe I really was smelling fumes coasting into the gas station.

This morning my carpooler gave me $10 -- off it goes to my Extra Monies fund.
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After work today I stopped and got gas.

On August 1, my odomoter was: 104,333

Today, my odomoter was: 104,601

That is a difference of 268 miles

I bought 9.382 gallons on Aug. 1.
Today, I bought 8.135 gallons.

A difference of: 1.247 gallons

So . . my gas mileage is 268/8135 =~31mpg

Am I figuring this correctly?

Gas was $3.62/gallon for a total of $29.52

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I stopped by the library today - dropped off items and picked up some more. I unfortunately had forgotten to take two books which were due today with me - so I'll get them in tomorrow on the way home from church. $.70 fine.

One of the books I had to return today was my Vegetarian Slow Cooker book. I made copies of 6 of the recipes that I may want to try.

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Last night I made a start on my Shape It Up weekend by doing a trash run and a dish run.

So far tonight, all I've accomplished was actually eating one of the Veggie Bean Burgers I made a couple weeks ago (and froze!) to see if it was edible enough to include in my meal plans. It was.

I think #9 is calling my name quite loudly right now. I did make some progress in my plan . . . Hello? Stephanie? Yep I guess I'll be checking out your latest adventure here shortly.

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I got an email today from the person who bought the Brita pitcher - she'd picked it up from the PO this morning. She was so happy to have gotten it so fast. I guess I can't begrudge the extra shipping cost (and reduced profit) too much. ;D

I posted the Brita pitcher that I'd had listed on Craigslist on another site I frequent. Someone bought it - $15 + shipping and handling. Great!

So yesterday I took off from work a bit early and stopped by the PO to mail it. The postal worker was miffed at me because I hadn't taped the box. Understandable I guess, but I also remembered from when I was selling my teacher supplies that they always wanted to check what was being mailed ++ I didn't have any tape. So . . . I ended up mailing it Priority to get the "free" tape (I also misjudged the weight of it w/the box - so an extra $5.40 in shipping alone).

So, $21.10 - $.92 paypal fee - $11.60 Priority Shipping = net profit of $8.62.

I think I'm about ready to take all my Spanish materials to half-price and see what they'll give me for them. Even if it's only $10 for the lot, it'll be more than I have now, right?

Or . . if anyone is interested in various computer programs for learning Spanish + books, let me know. I also have a box of 10 Brita Pitcher filters I want to sell.

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Last night when I got home I was all settled in and reading "Hard Eight" by Janet Evanovich when I got a call from my dad. He was needing new ink for his printer, and he couldn't get his old cartridge refilled at Walgreen's because it was leaking.

So, he'd found one on ebay for $8 and wanted to know if it was a good deal. We spent the next hour talking it through over the phone, then eventually yahoo messenger when his phone died. I tried to talk him through using my paypal account to buy the item because he wanted to do "buy it now" but it wasn't letting him add his address. Finally I told him to email the seller, apologize, and say he was a newbie ebayer and would pay as soon as possible.

Tonight I went ahead and set up a paypal account for him (with his input over the phone) and paid for the item via his account.

Trying to help someone do this over the phone is NOT my idea of a nice relaxing evening. But at least it is now done - hopefully the ink cartridge will come quickly.

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I've done some spending the last few days - unnecessary spending - mostly on food.

Sunday - Tuesday: $35.96
Wed - no spending

$4.56 of that was lunch on Tuesday because I forgot to bring my lunch to work. The remainder of the money was almost completely not needed and not good for me.

I'm going to deduct it from my grocery budget and move on - but one way or another, I'm NOT going over budget this month. I've got more than enough food already in the house that needs to be eaten.

*Almost forgot -- I got out one of my last large containers of eggs on Monday morning to make my oatmeal/egg breakfast. I didn't get back into the kitchen till Tuesday night (other than to grab a banana). Guess what was still out on the counter? At least it was only 1/4 full, so not a whole container wasted.

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My gas gage has been acting funky on me, so I'm not really sure what to think. But today it was hovering between 1/2 full and a bit more than 3/4 of a 1/2 full after having driven 220 miles. Normally 1/2 tank gives me around 160 miles.

So, either my gas gage is acting *really* funky OR I'm getting darn good gas mileage!

I'll find out the real story on Friday when I fill up again.

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I think I've decided to go with the Garmin Nuvia 200. I'm going to wait until my current cc statement closes to buy it - that way I can budget money in August and September for it. That'll happen around the 15th of the month.

Today's spending:

Gas: $3.73/gallon - 9.382 gallons bought
...........=$35.08 Odomoter: 104,433

Groceries: $30.59

Bought: red/green grapes, 3 bananas, 4 red del apples, 1 can mandarin oranges, lg cannister old-fashioned oatmeal, 5 16oz containers of egg whites, 1 32oz mixed frozen veggies, 1 box Morningstar veggie links, lg container Rice Dream milk, 1 sm box Junior Mints

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Woo Hoo! Remember how in my last couple posts I mentioned about how I was trying to figure out whether I should go with the quarterly membership plan at the gym, or cough up the money for a full year?

Well, today near the end of my workout session with E, he confirmed with me that I do have the job (after work on Fridays 3 1/2 hrs) starting a week from this coming Friday. He also mentioned that since I'd be working at the gym, my membership would be FREE!

So, not only does that mean I don't need to pay for the quarterly fee (roughly $64), it also means that I don't have to put it in my budget to save up for the next quarterly due!

Yay!!!

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When I was doing my grocery shopping today, I noticed something that slightly annoyed me. First of all, Wal-mart has stopped carrying the large container of generic egg substitute. Wah! Secondly, the next least expensive brand that is in a large container cost $4.89 for 32 oz, while the 16oz containers cost $2.44/each. So, you would at first assume it would be cheaper to buy the 32oz version + greener (due to less trash) - but obviously you would be wrong!

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?'s

I'm going to a Vegan/Vegetarian meetup brunch tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing a fruit salad, but I'm not sure if the mixture I'm thinking of will work right or not.

Here's the fruit I was thinking of: red/green grapes, sliced bananas, chopped apples, mandarin oranges, maybe some canned pineapple chunks?

Is there anything that I should take out? Or do you think all those tastes/textures would work ok?

Next ?

At the gym, I will be an independent contractor. This year I will make less than $600. Do I have to do a Schedule C for it? Or can it be listed under "other income" for tax purposes?

Next year, I would make a bit less than $1200. Would that be enough to make me have to pay self-employment taxes?

One more ?

Anyone have any idea why my Cruise 2010 ticker is so long? It's cutting part of my sidebar off! I checked the code and it looks the same as the other tickers. Weird.