My roasted veggies and tofu were very disappointing tonight. :( The tofu (a different brand than normal) tasted sour, the carrots didn't fully cook, the cauliflower got mushy, and I still can't cook with eggplant. Lame. Also, I have piles left because this was going to be lunches for the next couple of days. I'll have to pick out the good stuff and supplement.

On the plus side, I have almost filed my taxes. My return is complete, but I can't netfile because my address is wrong, and I had to create an account to change it, and they're mailing my account verification etc etc etc. Still, almost done! Whew.

Helloooooo! What's going on? How were your weekends? Don't you just love life right now?

I don't, particularly. But that's neither here nor there.

I had a pretty good weekend, though. Thursday night featured spontaneous sushi with sarcasma, mystery_diva and sanity_clause. Tasty and fun!

Friday night featured spontaneous Mexican with starfishchick, sarcasma and sanity_clause. Also tasty and fun, with bonus NaNo talk. However, after careful research it would appear that all Mexican restaurants in Toronto are veeeeery slow.

Dinner was followed by a spontaneous viewing of Mirrormask, which was visually stunning. And thus I used up all my alloted spontaneity for the year.

( Bellydance excursion to Kitchener )

( Money Money Money )

Wait! You've made it this far, don't run away yet!

Two things:

1. We're not allowed to wear perfume or any kind of scent at work anymore. My BPAL collection is weeping.

2. If you're taking part in the tea exchange, remember to send your tea! I'm sure your recipient will be very grateful, what with fall giving way to winter here in the northern hemisphere.

Oh, wait, one more:

3. It is less than 10 hours until November, and my summer's accumulation of sunburns (the ones I received DESPITE my careful application of sunscreen every day) have not gone away. WTF?

Next up for me: NaNo! It's going to be awfulawesome.

Happy birthday dorrie6! I hope you have a wonderful day.

***

The week of the constant *thwack*, *thwack* of squash balls is almost over. I don't know whose idea it was to put a freaking SQUASH COURT in the middle of a place where people are actually working, but I'm guessing it was someone whose office doesn't front onto the atrium holding said squash court. Idiots.

I also don't know why anyone would want to watch people playing squash. Granted, I don't understand why people want to watch most sports, but squash seems particularly silly. It's like watching someone run on the treadmill - there's no strategy, just lots of power. Feel free to contradict me if you know better. :)

(Ha! We've decided that the next event in the atrium should be strip poker. Or possibly jello wrestling. Much more entertaining.)

***

Yesterday I discovered that what I thought was free extended cable was actually cable that I was paying for, even though I hadn't asked for it. Nice. And of course the reason it took me three months to figure this out is that at some point I stopped receiving bills, even though I hadn't asked for that either. Too bad they didn't decide to stop taking the money from my bank account, even though I didn't ask for that either.

***

I am impatiently waiting for blueberry season. Strawberries just don't cut it (I know, blasphemy), although I've been eating them anyway. Yesterday I found some not-ridiculously-expensive blackberries, which made me happy this morning, but they're still not blueberries.

Blueberries and ice cream -- the two best foods in the world.

Mmmm, now I want some ice cream.

I now have new cheques for the third time in as many months. And I don't write very many cheques, so the environmental guilt is getting to me every time I toss the 98 unused cheques in the recycling bin (torn into tiny pieces, of course). It's not my fault, though, I swear! And these new cheques are a cause for excitement, because they signify a new phase in my life in which I have no bank fees whatsoever. That's right, none. Not for cheques, not for debit, not for ATMs, not for money orders, not even a monthly fee. I (heart) my credit union.

Songs that should be about drugs, even though they're really about sex: Please Don't Touch My Bowl.

Speaking of sex, I heard on the news yesterday that New Brunswick is putting together a new "abstinence-based" sex ed program for schools. ( The jist of the article )

This just drives me crazy. What teens (and pre-teens) need is information, factual information so that they aren't out there hurting themselves out of ignorance, and to be allowed to ask questions. They don't need everything to be hidden behind an atmosphere of "sex is bad".

(Now that I think about it, I don't remember having any formal sex-ed in school - just the girls-only videos on menstruation in grades 5 & 6. Oh, and the copy of Where Did I Come From that was in my kindergarten class, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't part of some sort of formal curriculum. Heh.)

vestra and I were actually in the same room last night! For a whole 2 hours! I'd almost forgotten that I had a roommate. Aaaand now she's off again, although I think just for the weekend this time. It's good that she's coming back - it's wrong when my friends aren't here to entertain me.

So, it would seem that I have magic powers to make money appear just by thinking about it: first the bank gives me money back, after having overcharged my service fees, and now I'm getting a big chunk of money from work because they somehow forgot to actually put the pay increase into effect when I was promoted. Of course, it's money I was supposed to already have, but I didn't notice it wasn't there (which is a whole other issue of me not being enough of a grown-up to pay attention to my pay stubs), so it's free! bonus! money!

I wonder if I can get this power to work in other areas? ::concentrates on hot geek boys carrying cake::

Also, my dentist totally complimented my bones and gums today. You know your life is in a rut when you're happy that someone is saying nice things about the inside of your mouth.

Well, I've finished reading Debt Free by 30, and I'm ready to start becoming rich! Yup.

I did the first step, making a complete list of all my expenses, including keeping track of everything I spent for a month. Wow, I spend a lot on food and eating out. And then I added it all up, and compared it to how much money I made...and there's the reason why I don't have any savings. Living proof that people always spend exactly what they have, without even realizing it. And to think, I used to live on $10,000 a year. How things change.

So now I'm supposed to look at ways I can save - how necessary is my rent? My transportation? My cable/internet/phones? My entertainment? My buying of DVDs/CDs/books/magazines? Those last ones, probably not very. Heh. To start with, I'm going to go talk to my credit union and see if I can reduce my bank fees, which will probably basically mean not using ATMs as much. And then I'm going to look at transferring my credit card stuff to a lower interest card, even if it means not getting any points toward anything. I don't know that I'm ever going to use those points anyway. Oh, and I'm going to try to get a better deal for my cell, since I don't really use it much.

After that, I'm not sure yet - I guess just try to spend less on non-essentials. The grand plan is that I want to have 3 months salary in my savings account in case of emergency, like losing my job. At the rate I'm going now, this'll take about, oh, 4 years. I think I may need to speed that up. I did my taxes this weekend, too, though, and it looks like I'm going to be getting some money back, so I can start with that. And then try to save a bit each month. And once I have that bit in savings, I guess I can start saving for a down payment.

Oh, *lord*, this is going to take forever. But if it actually works, I'll feel like such a responsible grown-up!

I just bought my first RRSP. I feel very old responsible. I'm not quite ready for retirement yet, though, seeing as I still don't have any cats.