Hi everyone! I have my first tutoring appointment today at 1:15 p.m. so I don't have a lot of time right now, but I just wanted to stop by and say hi!

My stepdad and I arrived back home at 2:40 a.m. this morning! Boy, was it good to get back to my own room again.

I had a great trip and did a lot of fun stuff. I'll try to post a bit more about that soon.

Today though I worked on updating my sidebar with one of my financial goals for this year -- tracking my earnings with the various rewards sites. My goal is to earn $800 by November 11. I'm including the $50 I earned from Swagbucks in 2010 towards that goal.

I made a financial leap of trust (or stupidity, depending on what happens ...) today. I took out some money from my Roth IRA and used it to purchase shares of one particular stock. I read a lot about this particular company over vacation, and all of my California family members have put money into this particular stock. This could turn out to be a fantastic decision, or one where I lose most of what I put into it. Either way, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't a lot of money. (There won't be tax consequences as the money I took out came from my own contributions.)

I am starving right now, so I probably ought to go get something to eat, and then get ready for my first session with my new student.