Uh oh! Look what I bought...

Apparently I've decided what to do with the cheque my mum sent me...I went to the Yukon Artists at Work gallery today for the first time (!) and walked away with the following items.

"Racine Rapids, Tagish River" Yukon artist Stephanie Ryan



"Raver" Yukon artist Heide Hehn



"Blue Moon" also by Heidi Hehn



I love ravens and the two pictures I bought were from a group of 5. They are small (8 x 10-ish) and are acrylic on canvas, ready to hang.

The painting is over 20" x 30" and still in the plastic wrap, which distorts the colours a bit, but I'll need to get it framed - hopefully sooner rather than later. All the colours match my new furniture, and I feel I did really well. My place is so bare and bland that these will really perk it up!

Can I extend this holiday into forever?

I am so relaxed right now. It's such a great feeling and I don't want it to end! The best part of a holiday is just not being at work, as far as I'm concerned. I like my job, but it's always nice to step away from it for a bit and just do things that you want to do; sometimes you need a holiday just to get things done around the house!

I don't make time for stuff like purging, big cleans, tidying, etc. when I'm working because the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is clean or purge or whatever. Part of my motivation last week was knowing I had a friend arriving and god forbid the house should be messy! :P

Anyway, I did a big old purge of closets, cupboards, shelves...most of it went to the Sally Anne, some to the free store at the recycling depot. I've cleaned the bathroom, dusted, tidied, vacuumed, laundered, sorted, washed the floors, organized...! Phew! It feels great but I dare say I can probably find loads more stuff to get rid of if I really took the time to sort more thoroughly, but I did amazingly well for short bursts. Sometimes that's the best way - then you can't really think about it and decide that you want to keep it after all.

My friend arrived on Thursday and it was SO great to see her!! We've actually been quite busy since she arrived and we have two more days to relax and poke around the city before she goes home. She's here for a knitting weekend, but it's been very busy for them. There are 11 attendees from Edmonton, Calgary & Vancouver and they're knitting gloves with a wool called Qiviuq - musk ox wool. It's frighteningly expensive ($90 a ball!) but she's very excited as it's a lovely wool to work with.

It's actually really nice to have someone around to talk to, too! I love living alone, but it's only when someone is here that I realize how much I miss having company. It's so convenient having the second bedroom, too, as she has her privacy & her own space to spread out in. She likes the cats, but if you're not used to pets, it can be very disturbing to have them wandering in and out of your room all night.

I got a birthday card and a cheque from my mum, too, which was a nice surprise. I'm having people over for a potluck on Friday and have ordered a chocolate coconut cake to share. Part of the money is going to pay for the cake, part is going to pay for a haircut and the rest is going into the bank so I can ponder the best thing to do with it! I was thinking I'd split it up amongst my savings accounts, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

Anyway, I have two more weeks of holiday ahead of me and I have lots of things yet to do. My list of 'to do' has only begun to be checked off! :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

A long time comin' - Link love!

I have been meaning to do this for, literally, weeks and, in some cases, months. I feel bad that I've left it for so long, so before I get distracted again (easily done) here are some blogs I've been enjoying with sincere apologies to the owners for the lax post:

1) The Sassy Curmudgeon - hilarious! Seriously, don't read this at work because people will start wondering about the strange noises emanating from your cubicle.

2) Early Retirement the Middle Way - another Canadian PF blog! This is a woman who has it all (and a bit more besides) together. Balancing work and life while focusing on financial security, simple pleasures and living to the fullest without going into debt for it.

3) Distractible Jane - Another very funny blog. Jane is very curious (and distracting) and is doing really fun things like getting married, taking a stand up comedy course...

4) Half-Dozen Daily - Operation 'Jiggly-Bits' is a go! :) As are delicious recipes for morning shakes, weekly jar updates and shopping deals for a hard-working mom and her family.

5) Gotta Little Space to Fill - Baked goods, renovations, music, beautiful photographs...among many other things. She also has a delectable cooking and baking blog here.

6) Quest to be Financially Abundant - She is finding her voice and her way in her relationships, getting out of debt and balancing school, work and life in the process.

Several others I've only very recently started reading are:

A Mainland Streel - a Newfoundland blog!

April Fire

Check them out!

(I know I've missed some, but sometimes you stumble across blogs while reading other blogs you stumbled across while reading other blogs, etc. Thanks to everyone for writing them!!)

Que und quoi?!

I have no Windows 7 on a computer that I thought had been loaded with it. Um...what? I distinctly remember a conversation about upgrading to Windows 7 when I bought it, but perhaps I misunderstood the entire thing. Well, not perhaps; obviously.

I went to Staples yesterday and spoke with someone about the "missing" Windows 7 CDs (with respect to the crash) and was told they should be in the box, in a thin CD case. I had doubts about this as I had been through said box twice already to make sure I had everything I needed. Anyway, I searched again when I got home, but the discs are definitely not there. I returned today with my receipt and spoke with the same employee who said that it wasn't actually included in the package that I got although I feel pretty sure that's part of WHY I bought that particular package.

What conversation was I having then?? I ended up buying Windows 7, but now I'm not sure I want to load it up, so will sit on it for a couple of days before making the final decision. Once it's opened, after all, I can't return it and that would be $140 wasted. Argh!!

*Le sigh...*

I love my new computer. The whole touch screen aspect of it still hasn't got old and it's uber-efficient (with 640GB what else could it be?). It was a definite want and a rather impulsive purchase, but the timing turned out to be pretty good, as my laptop simply up & died in December. Off to hard drive heaven. It would have cost me approximately $300 to fix a computer worth maybe $100, so I donated it. Hopefully they'll be able to salvage parts from it to repair other laptops. Good-bye faithful friend!

But apparently even monsters aren't without their problems as I've found out the past couple of days. There I was, blithely playing a game yesterday morning, killing some time before work when C.R.A.S.H. Machine dies.

Nuts.

After it rebooted, I chose the 'safe mode' just to be, er, safe, but something had completely frazzled the poor thing (what do the experts call it? Corrupted). I imagine it was the game I was playing, although I was assured by the game people that it is absolutely virus free, etc. etc. Whatever the problem, I've noticed that since I've had this computer that the games aren't playing quite as they should be, mostly sound issues and they seem to 'drag' a bit when I'm playing.

I was on the phone for an hour with the HP helpline and what I ended up doing was using the recovery disks to return everything to normal. This is where I'm extremely grateful I forked out for an external hard drive! Everything I needed to keep safe was and everything else was wiped clean (I can recover iTunes). It took about half an hour to get everything back to normal, but I'm feeling slightly put out by the whole experience. I have to reload Windows 7, too, but as the discs weren't included in my package (just the installation of them), I'm considering purchasing the upgrade. To take it back to Staples would mean an automatic $40 "diagnostic fee," not to mention the fact they would probably have it at least a couple of days. It would be worth it to have it on-hand in case this happens again. The cost of the program is about $130, but I'll call them first to find out if they can reload it for me for free if I brought it in one afternoon. A phone call doesn't cost anything and I DID buy the two-year extended warrenty with them, so hopefully that sort of thing would be included under that.

But here I am at the end of my day, no worse off and thankful that someone knew what they were doing. The woman I spoke with did seem a bit surprised that the game I was playing (she even knew the one it was) could have caused this, as there shouldn't be any problems. The computer is more than capable of handling "little" things like that. Regardless, it's fixed for now and that's all that matters. The recovery disks did what they were supposed to do. It's just a pain to have try and remember what I had listed in my favourites bar.

Holiday day 1 of 24 is almost over and while I wasn't at all productive, I am quite pleased that it didn't end in tears, either! :)

Belated pay day updates

I got paid on Wednesday and was quite delighted to see that my bonus was over $1600 - not by much, mind you, but nonetheless...I ALSO got an increment in my pay (as of Mar 1, I think), which I'd forgotten about and which works out to about $100 a month. I think I can expect two more of these (annually) and then that's it.

So, the designation of funds went like this:

Total pay: $2190.09

RRSP: $170 (10% of bonus)
EFund: $170 (ditto)
ING: $300 ($50 ea for 6 accounts)
Gifts: $75 (+ $221.91 on hold for my income tax payment because if I don't put it aside, it'll be gone)

VISA: $255.37
LOC: $75
Hydro: $95
M/C: $6 (I cut this up about 2 years ago; not cancelled it because it's my longest held card. As it's a secured card, this is the monthly fee. Not sure cancelling it will affect the credit rating, that's all)
Phone/Internet: $127
Cell: $57

Jars: $300 (2 weeks worth)
Investor's Group RRSP: $50
Car Ins: $40.83
Insurance: $10.95
Bank fees: $9.95

I should have a couple of hundred left over, some of which I'll transfer to the LOC. It's still far too high for my liking, and although that's entirely my own fault, at least I'm aware of it and have adjusted my bi-weekly payments accordingly. I got dinged $20 extra dollars lst month because the minimum payment amount wasn't met, and I don't want that happening again!

It's spring break up here - two weeks! - and it's been pretty busy at work. It's quite a stimulating job anyway, but adding more kids, parents and activity in the library makes it worse. Plus we have several new staff who are still learning. Two are doing very well. The third is a lovely woman but one who needs constant supervision, which is draining just on its own. I found myself getting wound up yesterday and it was a relief to go for a short walk with a friend at lunch. It really helped clear my head.

But I have three weeks of holidays coming up! I plan to do not a lot except visit with a friend who's visiting me for 5 days, LOTS of spring cleaning and purging, walking, photography, reading, DVD watching, maybe some writing...I don't think the hoped for Vancouver trip will happen. I don't have the funds. We can go later in the year, maybe closer to Christmas to shop for presents or something. The airline packages are always on. I'll just take my friend out for a nice meal instead.

Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

The real update!

After yesterday’s debacle, in which I took about an hour to write a post, then lost it to some sort of error in Blogspot, I am going to try and recreate it using the sensible suggestion (thanks, T’Pol!) of Word and then cutting and pasting it instead. Part of the problem is that I get distracted easily and spent some time switching back & forth between windows, so it signed itself out, but then all it asked was that I sign in again. I got some kind of strange error message but didn’t worry that I couldn’t find it again because it was auto-saved as I wrote it up, but when I went to the Edit option to retrieve it, all that was saved was the first line. ARGH! :(

Anyhoo...

I am going to my favourite format to update: point!

• I did my taxes (thanks to Studio Tax!) on Thursday and sent them off. I collected my last T4 and that took me from a return of just over $1000 to owing $221.91. I’m not complaining as that’s $2K less than last year and I’ll be able to pay it off in one go, so YAY!
• I got a (gov’t) cheque for $150 in the mail yesterday, which was a nice surprise! I have no idea what it’s for, however. The description reads “Subsidy,” and I’m wondering if this has something to do with electricity or energy or something. Regardless, it’s a nice snowflake.
• I’m going to update my resume. I’ve decided to at least think about getting a p/t job, hopefully just for the summer. I feel I still owe too much so an extra $300 - $400 per month would really help get rid of that, as well as plump up my savings.
• I’m on ‘set 8’ of “Midsomer Murders.” Already. I’m addicted!
• I went to a birthday party here last Saturday. The company was excellent, the food delicious, and it was a terrific idea all round.
• The main emotion about the whole thing with D that I have right now is relief. Like a huge burden has been lifted off me. I don’t hate him; I can’t. Not only is that a terrific waste of time and energy, but I have these wonderful lessons to learn from it all: about anger & its expression, about self-respect & integrity, about understanding that the way I’ve been treating myself (very poorly) is the way other people are going to treat me.
• Books that are filled with circumstantially appropriate content & titles finding their way into my hands
• Joining a meditation group through a new co-worker
• I thought I would try a version of “meal plan Monday” on my day off, which happens to be Friday. I’m thinking of calling it “Fix-It Fridays” or “Food Fixin’ Friday” or some such thing. Yesterday’s “Food Fix” was Hawaiian chicken in the crockpot. It was delicious!
• My crockpot lid broke today as I was washing it!Good thing I have a second crockpot! :)
• I get my bonus next week! It should be approximately $1600, so that’s where my income tax payment is coming from. The rest will be split between debt repayment and savings accounts.
• I have a friend visiting me from Vancouver for several days at the end of the month, then am hoping for a long Easter weekend break down there, as I’ve taken two weeks off around my birthday. I’m really looking forward to the break.
• I’m 93% complete on my 2009 RRSP! That’s a great feat, really. 2010 starts with this next paycheque, so we’ll see what happens from there.

Canadian Saver has posted an update of her 2010 goals to this point, which I’m going to shamelessly copy and do as well (thanks for letting me steal the idea, CS!). ;-)

RRSP 2010: This will officially begin on March 10. I auto-save $100 a month right now and the plan is to increase that as my debt goes down. My goal here is $5000.

Pay off existing debt. I wanted to be free of debt by the end of June, but I’m not sure this is doable. It would be really, really tight, so I’m modifying it to be debt free by the end of the year, which is less stressful.

I will pay off the computer by the end of January. DONE! PIF: Jan 15!!

Next up: VISA, then my LOC.

EFund. I’m aiming for $3000 by end December 2010. Bonus! $3500.
I’m just over halfway to this goal already. I auto-save $50 a month.

US account. I would like $500 US in here by end December 2010. I currently have $308. It’s just for fun and day trips to Skagway, so it doesn’t need serious attention. Because it’s just for fun, nothing has changed with this. I will try mooching USD at the hotel starting in April or May, when the tourists start trickling in.

Track spending. I still find money running through my fingers far more than it should. So I’m going to continue with this. Write it down, meal plan, make shopping lists, etc. Find an extra $50 a month to put toward debt until it’s paid off. Well, I have actually been doing this (apart from the meal planning part), with the colourful and particularly fabulous “Budget & Analysis Tool” that I got from Fabulously Broke. It is, quite simply, amazing!

Credit card spending. None, unless I can pay it off in full when due. Um...not doing that great with this, but neither is it ridiculous. I will be able to pay this off by the end of April, although I’ve started a monthly recurring purchase through my naturopath. That, however, is an amount that I am perfectly able to pay off in full each month.

Cash only. January. And I’ll take it month to month from there depending on how I do. This means leaving my debit & credit card at home, so the temptation isn’t there to use them. This should curb my spending, generally and otherwise. Hmmm...No. But I have been using my jars pretty consistently, and therefore working with cash a lot more, which is a definite start.

Make a will. This could also fall under ‘financial,’ as it costs money to do this, but I’ll aim to have this done by my birthday this year. I plan to have the funds for it by the end of April, which will be a month later than I stated (my birthday is at the start of the month), but still aim to cross this off my list this year. It’s not worth it to keep putting it off.

Photography. I have an awesome camera that I’m not using. I will use it. I’m actually doing okay with this. I’m making sure that I take it on my walks with me because even if I go to the same place every day to walk, there’s always something to see.

School. I’m looking into several online options for this. The college here is great, but the classes I need either aren’t being offered this semester or the times conflict with my work schedule, so I think online is the way for me to go. I’m aiming for a minimum of three classes this year. I’m still thinking about what I need to do and how I will pay for it. I have a list of several classes that I want to take, though, so could perhaps work on those while I figure out what I need.

Read. My goal is 100 books this year. 14 so far! And they are: (*recommended)

1. Field of Blood - Denise Mina
2. The Guinea Pig Diaries - AJ Jacobs
3. Rescue Ink - w/Denise Flaim (also see: RescueInk.com)*
4. Debt Free Forever - Gail Vaz-Oxlade*
5. Dogtown - Stefan Bechtel (Best Friends Animal Sanctuary)*
6. The Return of the Dancing Master - Henning Mankell
7. Tales From a Dog Catcher - Lisa Duffy-Korpics
8. Under the Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man - Tom Cox*
9. The Riesling Retribution - Ellen Crosby
10. Why Good People do Bad Things - Debbie Ford
11. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows***
12. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel
13. A Bone to Pick - Charlaine Harris*
14. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse - Charlaine Harris*

So there we have it. Pretty much the same as yesterday's lost post, but of course I don't remember everything that I lost. I'm off for a walk with a friend in an hour and I'm looking forward to that. It's cold and bright here today; we have almost 11 hours of daylight now! It's quite wonderful.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

$$(&^*&&_))()+)++&^%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An hour's work on a post and Blogger ate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!