Oh, poor Lilty, I hate having to clean in order to the do the thing I was going to do, rather than clean.

askye, your new place sounds great. I'm so happy for you.

I did just sit down and figure out my current budget vs. my budget to come. Amazingly, my social security check is going to cover all of my absolute necessities (rent, bills, groceries, car insurance).

This is a dirty, dirty trick, universe. You win this round.

I've checked the usual possible places, and it's none of them, which means it's somewhere ridiculous where it isn't supposed to be, so real cleaning will be involved. Then the dirty clothes I find will likely be so abundant that I will have to wash some of them to condense the pile and make my room clean.

I cleaned yesterday so I could pull out the beads today.

I need to sit down with our money logs so I can see where the cash goes. and what gets put on the credit cards ( that shouldn't- mostly do to me doing things llike putting the atm card in the wrong place) I would be really happy if I could find 50 dollars to save. Starz - we watch sometime. I decided to keep it - because eventually it gets all the movies - sort the second run theater.

I have some package of premium channels that includes HBO and Starz. Starz does have a good selection of movies - thing I wouldn't rent but am willing to watch if it's just a matter of changing the channel. i gotta have my HBO, beause someday The Sopranos will be on again, and I love Deadwood, and I might have to start watching The Wire.

Yay, Deena, on the good PT and a reasonable Client, and possible more billing hours.

The only computer game I play is Spider Solitaire, which gives you a big ol' clue to *my* nature.

The only way I manage to stay within my budget is to use cash in hand. The ATM ate my card years ago, and I never got it replaced. So every time I need cash I have to find a place to park, walk in, and write my tiny little check--this branch of the CU doesn't have a drive-through. If I can't pay for it with what I have in my hand, I don't get to have it.

I do online bill-paying though, and am thrilled with it. And yes, my standard of living has... I prefer the word "simplified" to "lowered," thanks.

In that vein, we've taken another step back technology-wise, too. We were using pump antibacterial hand soap in the kitchen and bath, and liquid body wash in the shower. In the last few months we'd changed to a non-antibacterial hand soap, and I'd found the body wash stripped my skin. I experimented till I found olive oil and goats milk soaps that don't do that, so I've been using bar soap in the bath, and my skin is happy.

Except for my hands, which were feeling stripped after every time I washed my hands. Applying lotion only to wash my hands again every 20 minutes or so was getting old. And expensive. So we've ditched the liquid hand soap in favor of the olive oil bar soap on the sinks, too. My hands are now as happy as the rest of me.

Now all I have to do is find a good bar soap rack that will drain the bar, and will fit on the edges of the kitchen and bathroom sinks.

While I was looking for soap racks at Whole Foods, I found some skin balms and salves that *don't* contain lanolin or petrolatum, for lips, hands, and body. Two from the Common Sense line, Lemon Cypress and Jojoba Rose, plus Whole Foods' lavender and lemon verbena, and Badger Tangerine Breeze. I smell like heaven, right now.

I've got, you know, Wire links up the ying, if you want them, to know what's the what on it. Because I'm now a "Save My Show" geek. Although this may be the first "Save My Show, Bitch!" campaign ever. Netflix has the first two seasons. (/show pimping because I want my show back, damn it!)

I've got The Wire, Deadwood, and Farscape on my Netflix rotation right now. I tried The Shield, but it just seemed so...cluttered and busy compared to The Wire.

I need to find a place to get The Wire cheap, I want to watch it several times and I hate letting the disks go back to Netflix.

Hmm. TIme to play with my Netflix queue. (z/=x)

Take THAT you Universe Bitch!

Eternal Sunshine was without a case, sitting on my dvd shelf. The Eternal Sunshine case had Princess Diaries 2 in it. Princess Diaries 2 had Simpsons Season 5 Disc 3. Simpsons had the Sarah McLachlan Afterglow Live cd. Afterglow had Sims 2. I win!

Puts dvd in laptop and waves goodbye. Just for a little while.

Woo-hoo, Lilty! Way to kick the universe in the teeth!

My husband does that with CDs and their cases. It drives me crazy.