Melinda Musil dot Com

Posts Tagged ‘USD’

When I was in Boston, my camera broke.  It wasn’t a total surprise- the camera was over 5 years old, and it’s been on at least a half dozen domestic and a half dozen international adventures.  It’s held up quite well, but probably earned its retirement.  I limped through the Boston trip using my mother’s Canon and now that I am at home, I am looking for a new camera.  I’m expecting to get another simple point and shoot, the kind I can drop in my pocket.  I would love to get a DSLR but that’s kinda out of my budget right now.

Right now I’m kinda irritated with one of our local discount stores.  I discovered today that they are selling a fantastic Canon EOS Rebel XT digital with a kit, for only $350.  More than I wanted to spend, but a fantastic price for a DSLR.

Grrr.  I sooo want that camera.  But I don’t want to spend so much for it.

Is it possible to be TOTALLY OUT OF ENERGY? ‘Cuz that’s how I feel!

Okay, so I guess I’m technically not “totally” out of energy.  I know there are lots of people who have a much worse lot than I.  But I am tired right down to the bone.

We returned from Boston last Saturday, and since then I’ve been working almost non stop on my bedroom/office.  All of the wallpaper is stripped, and I’m now debating what color I want to paint it.  It’s getting there- slowly but surely.

Meanwhile, because I am totally insane, I have also been swimming every day.  I can feel the swimming pushing my muscles, and the wallpaper-stripping is pushing my muscles.  Between the two I’m about done in!

I am also now shopping for a new computer that I will be able to put in my newly redecorated office.  Of course, that task is far more difficult than it should be.  Do I want this brand or that brand?  Do I want more of this or less of that?  Then there’s the money… I’ve been saving for this for quite awhile, so I can afford to spend a healthy amount, but I’m naturally cheap and I really don’t want to spend $2000 on a new computer (though it seems that I certainly could).  Talk about how to make my head spin!

I am not a fan of rechargeable batteries.

To be honest, that is not a popular position in our current economy.  It seems like almost every battery powered electronic “toy” has rechargeable batteries, from Ipods to digital cameras.  That is why I personally wish that every “rechargeable” battery met the standard of traditional alkaline batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, etc.).  My camera uses rechargeable or alkaline AA batteries.  I can’t even count the number of times when my battery has died while I was away from home and I was able to buy AA batteries at a nearby gift shop to save the day.

But even using AA batteries, my camera eats through the batteries pretty quickly.  With heavy use, I’ll go through two AA batteries a day.  I don’t mind that, since I can buy AA batteries really cheap at a local dollar store (4 for $1 or 25 for $5).  That really drives my mother nuts, though.  She’s always trying to convince me to use her camera (with a rechargeable battery) instead.  Personally I don’t like to use her camera- I am just much more comfortable using my camera.  So it is definitely a sore spot in my family.

I am thinking about “caving” and purchasing a few rechargeable batteries for my upcoming vacation.  I hate to waste money, and in my opinion, rechargeable batteries are a waste of money, but at the same time… it would be really nice to get my mother to stop fretting over the number of batteries I use.  What do you think?

I went swimming again this morning.  I almost didn’t go- you know, the whole “I don’t wanna get out of bed” routine- but I’m glad I did.  It felt nice to be in the pool, even though I did not push myself very hard. (Plus, I forgot how good my hair feels when I wash it before I style it in the morning!)

I usually swim at a public pool.  It is not a fancy pool, but the price is right (I can get in for free since I am technically a substitute teacher for the local school district).  Plus it is a large pool- 25meters by 25 yards.  There is a small locker room with equally small gym lockers.  Again, it is not fancy, but it is sufficient.

I have gotten to swim with a friend of mine at a local health club before.  That was NICE.  The pool was much smaller- 25meters by maybe 6 yards- but it was VERY well kept.  The whole place looked freshley painted.  The locker room had huge wood lockers, and I do mean huge.  Think of your old school lockers, and multiply that size by three or four, and that will give you the size of these lockers!

It is definitely tempting to jump from “sufficient” to “nice” and buy a membership at that health club.  I am not buying that membership, at least not now, but if I ever make a million dollars, I will be there!

-the past two days have been kinda crazy. My mom is helping me to strip the wallpaper in my room, then we will repaint the whole thing. It will look so nice. We have already gotten the wallpaper off of two walls- which is very good when you consider that we have not removed any furniture from the room.

-by the way, the garage sale went very well and I’m now a couple hundred dollars richer.

-with all the room redecorating, I’m seriously considering how I want to arrange the furniture. The room is SMALL (10ftx10ft) and functions as both my bedroom and my office. I really am thinking I may need to loft my bed, but I have a few concerns about that too. For starters I’m afraid it would get too warm- I would be near the ceiling of a room on the top floor of the house. Also the ceiling is textured plaster, and not ideal for sitting under. But on the other hand, I really love to sleep up high (I know, it’s one of my quirks) and I could really use the extra floor space. I can go back and forth on this for a LONG time.

-next week my parents and I will visit my sister in Boston. We will be there for a couple of weeks and we will probably also drive up to canada. Don’t worry, I will take lots of photos and I will have my computer.

-speaking of computers, I’m thinking about getting a new one. Probably not until fall, when my life will hopefully settle down a bit. But it looks like I can get an HP pavilion dv-series notebook for around 1k, and that is good.

-can’t think of anything else. Seriously, I have far too much to do today!
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*edit* I found this in my drafts folder.  I wrote it a couple of days ago… guess I forget to post it!  How weird!

I have oodles of photos from our weekend visit to Nebraska to post and write about.  I was kind of waiting on the photos from my mother’s camera too, but I haven’t managed to snag her SD card yet, so I will just write about those later.  Be warned… some of the posts will probably be long.  As I’ve learned more about the NextGen Gallery plugin, I’m starting to use it more and more and really loving it.

Otherwise my day has gone quite well.  My mother and I picked my car up from the shop this afternoon.  Kudos to R&R Tire Works, who have the BEST mechanics.  When he couldn’t find the freyon leak in my air conditioner, he started taking it apart piece by piece.  He finally found an O-ring that needed to be replaced- just one little o-ring!  I had to pay for a $2 part, and then $75 worth of labor to find and replace that part!  How crazy- but let me tell you, I am very thankful for the mechanic who patiently sorted through my air conditioning system to find the leak, and then repaired it!

I’m also in the process of stripping wallpaper from my bedroom/office.  That is a fairly slow and tedious process- the wallpaper glue is NOT coming up easily.  But I will keep at it, because I am really looking forward to the finished product!

Summer is supposed to be a relaxing time.  But I guess not for me!

I am redecorating my room this summer.  It is LONG overdue… the last time the room was decorated, I was a baby.  I’m excited about it- it will be nice to see some of my old furniture go and to buy new furniture to take its place.  But it is also HARD!  Today my mom and I visited FIVE stores, in search of a window shade and a six foot scarf.  Naturally my window is a non-standard size (34.5 inches exactly), so instead of being able to buy cheap-but-perfectly-functional $30 shades from Walmart, it is looking like I will have to pay $150 to get the shades that I really love at Penny’s.  Good grief.

I also found a desk that I really liked at Target, with a gorgeous hutch, but the hutch is sold separately, making the total over $150. I do not want to spend tons of money on furniture, but I am looking for a writing desk, NOT a computer desk, and it seems that not many people make that!

Otherwise, I’m just trying to accomplish enough writing and so forth to stay afloat while I’m doing all this.  Oh, and I’m cleaning like a fiend, which is kind of exhausting in itself.  The amount of time that I put in today to clean ONE SHELF is just wrong.

So anyway.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to write more… but at this point who knows!

Most of you know that I am a member of the nation’s overeducated and underemployed/underinsured.  It’s been at least a year and a half since I’ve had health insurance, but I’m thinking about getting health insurance again.  It would definitely be a personal expense but I really suspect it could pay off in the long run.

I am strongly leaning towards buying just a catastrophic coverage plan, and covering all of the routine medical care and pharmaceuticals with cash.  It’s not perfect but it will cover me for the indefinite future.  Routine health care is not that expensive (less than $100 per well visit around here), and I can go to the university school of dentistry to get my teeth cleaned (for much less than a regular dental visit).  If I need prescription drugs, I can always order them from Meds India or another international pharmacy that would be uber-cheap, at least compared to the price of American pharmaceuticals.

I’m also thinking (again) about somehow getting rid of my uber-unhealthy Diet Coke addiction.  In fact, if I could successfully kick the cola habit, that would just be fantastic on many levels!  But I honestly don’t know where to begin.  It infuriates me, it angers me, it frustrates me- but I love my diet coke!

Oops.  Forgot to mention on here that tomorrow is my birthday.  I will be twenty six years old.  My parents are taking me out to La Fuente, which is by far my FAVORITE restaurant.

They want to get me a birthday gift, but honestly I can’t think of ANYTHING that I need that costs less than a couple hundred dollars.  So I may ask for either a netbook or for a couple hundred dollars contributed to buying a new notebook.  Or *maybe* for a new external hard drive- believe it or not, I think I’ve filled up the 160 gig’s of the one I have.

As an aside, I think I’m going to buy a couple more games for my Blackberry as my birthday gift to myself.

I awoke this morning and discovered nearly $200 worth of writing opportunities in my inbox.

Suffice it to say, I am VERY pleased by this.  I must admit that I’m very nervous as well, though.

I keep rolling it around in my head.  Let’s say I was able to make a steady $100 per week by writing.  That would equal $5200 per year, minus taxes.  That’s good, but not great.

What if it was $200 per week?  That would be $10,400 per year, minus taxes.  Better, but still not great.

Now what if I was able to make $100 per day?  $36,500 per year minus taxes- now we’re talking!

$200 per day?  That’s $73,000 per year minus taxes.  That is somewhere in the realm of, I don’t even dare dream of earning that much!  wow!