i want this(warning: link resizes window) but, alas, this is more in my price range. even with 3% cash back (*click for footnote).

bumble owes me a shirt (the last one was too tight for my upper arms - what john kristen used to call "grandma arms"); maybe i'll see how much more to have her make me a fake cozy?

---

what a perfect day! i love my job; it makes me feel good when i can help someone. i spent the whole day with one "new" client [new case but she's been in before] who was in an accident. she speaks with an accent, so she's hard to understand on the phone. i wound up filing her claim for her and making her doctor appointment (with my boss's OK of course - ethics). she feels like she doesn't get respect because she's got an accent. she was frustrated and in a great deal of pain. actually, she's got a decent command of English; there were a few nouns she didn't know but was able to completely describe with adjectives, and she only had to tell me to slow down once (but i talk too fast for native speakers, too!). i looked her in the eye and said that this country is made up of people from other countries who come to work and who learn the language, and she shouldn't be ashamed of an accent. we'd had words during her last case; she thought i divulged information about her to someone who, it turned out, read her mail. (not my fault! - i can't stop someone from opening an envelope once it's gone into the US mailbox.) she was really nice this time; i learned a bit about her family, and she hugged me when she left.

• it was so gorgeous outside that i opened the sun roof and my back windows. driving with short sleeves and the wind kissing my skin makes me feel so pretty :)
• i returned the rusty toilet auger to the home store, and got a smaller one that i tried before i bought: it works.
• my manicurist is back :) and i had my nails filled and cut down.
• went to the home of white trash and got a few things for my mom, and some cheap frames. yesterday, i'd gotten discontinued post office post cards of some cool stamps, at 25¢ (domestic violence, breast cancer, POW MIA, Viet Nam, and Sickle Cell) and now i can hang them. i loved my grandpa's stamp collection - it's Americana at a price we can all afford, to start - until my mom's sister's husband decided to make me do lessons about them. (it's not that i don't want to learn; it's that a kid doesn't want to be forced. hell, i spent time in the library when i was a teenager looking for the book of counted sorrows and hoping to find the legend of alice cooper; i always looked up the words in my lyrics! i just didn't want to be forced - by a guy who looked down my shirt. when i was 10. but when i worked in an office that got international mail, i'd save the stamps until i had a manilla envelope, then divide them into equal piles and divide them among co-workers' children and for my mom's boss, an avid amateur collector himself... the hobby itself was ruined for me, but not the love of the art.)
• by this time, the indian restaurant was open for dinner, so i got a buffet takeout for my mom and me: she had eggplant, and i had vegetarian appetizers. fattening, but one tray for the two of us isn't so bad. the lady there is super friendly, and the food is good even though the place has changed hands a few times. she'll post tomorrow, probably - but she's tired, and she enjoyed sharing a plate with me.

got the package from my accountant. Modified News is a valid deduction!!! no state tax owed even though my boss doesn't deduct from my small salary; my car tax offset it (because i didn't pay last year's until this year. my federal return would be considered pitiful to some people, but after deducting the enormous, documented medical bills, the return totals more than i make in a month. my accountant will efile for me.</ul>

my knee complained a bit in the white trash store, but i've given it several sprays with absorbine and it's quieting down.

all in all: a good day.

---

*footnote: shopathome.com members - free membership! get cash back on online purchases with companies we use all the time, percentages from 1% to 2% to as high as 30% (the highest one of all is for magazine subscriptions). tons of online stores are affiliated; i regularly earn as much as $9 on vitamin purchases, and $5 on drugstore.com - purchases i make anyway... if i bought more clothes, or more stuff at target and barnes & noble ... $7 back on peapod groceries!!!...my check would probably be triple what it's scheduled to be.

signup through link gives us each $5 after your first purchase, and commission checks are cut a few times a year... they're clear with the BBB.