Day	Amount	Place	Category
Tuesday	$31.50	OSF	eating out
Wednesday	$10.00	Safeway	groceries
Friday	$43.50	Trader Joe’s	groceries
	$102.00	CostCo	groceries
	$10.25	Tukwila Trading Post	groceries
Saturday	$89.50	Vet	pets
	$6.50	ear plugs	misc
Sunday	$38.75	gas	car
	$80.00	Living Social deal	eating out
	$32.75	Office Depot	allowance

It was a pretty good week- mostly quiet at work. I did dress up for Halloween- wore a Ren Faire dress my step-mother made me 8 years ago and the crushed velvet cloak I bought 15 years ago (yay for things that can go in the washing machine). It was nice to be able to fit into the dress comfortably- but it made sense, I now weigh about what I did 8 years ago.

We did grocery shopping on Friday, nothing major just yet. We’ll have a couple stock up for Thanksgiving shopping trips coming up, but we have a pretty good base of what we need. We found this really good pumpkin instant oatmeal at Trader Joe’s and bought six packs of it this week, since it’s seasonal. They also carry a better assortment of snack foods that are good for people trying to eat not as many chips.

We had also noticed June coughing a little bit for a couple days, and listening to her cough Saturday evening I realized- she has bordatella- ie kennel cough. It’s like bronchitis for dogs, and is very contagious. She’ll come through it just fine, but if old man Howie gets sick, that’s another story. So off to the vet she and I ran in order to get meds. I am currently the meanest mommy ever because I have to shove them down her throat.

But the best part of this week has been the music. On Friday we went to the local Irish pub to hear our favorite band, BOWI, play again. And then Saturday we went to see the Afghan Whigs on their reunion tour. They are one of C’s favorite bands. It was a good show. (The venue is small enough that there are no bad seats, but we ended up in a prime spot.)

 

We are over half way through 2012. I revised some of my goals because life took some turns I wasn’t quite planning on when I came up with them.

1)      Be paid for publishing one piece of fiction

Submissions so far: 4

Responses: 2 rejections 1 acceptance, 1 pending

The anthology I had a piece accepted to is now available to buy on Amazon. It’s called Conquest Through Determination.

2)      Pay All Adoption Expenses in Cash & Still Pay for C’s College Out of Pocket

We’re doing good here. This was helped tremendously by getting 3x as much in life insurance from the MIL than expected. Our savings is still growing, and we’re in really good shape.

We still haven’t gotten the background check back from the state of NV. With the holiday season fast approaching. I now figure we’ll be lucky to have our license by the end of the year.

3)      Attend FinCon12. Pay for the trip with money from allowance/side projects saved/earned BEFORE the conference starts. Goal: $600

FinCon was awesome. Not all of the money came from allowance/side projects, but it was still easily affordable, so I’m calling this a win.

4)      Become a member of Yakezie (6 month anniversary is Jan 21)

I am not certain this is still the right goal for me to be going after. I love what the Yakezie network stands for, but I don’t care that much about getting my Alexa under 200k. It’s pretty stable around the 275k mark. Maybe I can convince Sam to create a Friend of Yakezie badge/category, for those of us who don’t feel like being permanent challengers.

Anyway, it’s something I’m pondering.

Current ranking: 245,660

Back down a bit.

5)      Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $30.16 at the end of October, with $0.05 made so far this month. (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100.)

Amazon earnings: $0.00

One of the things that FinCon really brought home for me is that I’m not actually in this for the money. For now, I’m leaving the AdSense blocks up, but they’re getting moved further down the page. I’ll keep tracking, but making money isn’t why I blog.

6)      Be healthier

I’m on track, exercising and keeping to my calorie counts really well. I know Thanksgiving will be a challenge, but I think I’m at a good enough space that I won’t go over much, and I’ll be okay with the bit I do go over.

I am ahead of goal weight loss wise, and I’m starting to notice a difference in my face- less double chin when I look in the mirror, and that makes me happy.

C continues to experiment with new soups and chicken ideas. The last two nights we had Moroccan chicken (recipe from America’s Test Kitchen on PBS) and tonight he’s making a home version of tangerine chicken- here’s betting it will be tastier and healthier than what I can get at a restaurant.