Footprints on the Moon

I almost forgot to share what I saw at Walmart on Friday when I went to spend all my money!! It’s about as useful as me trying to find a orange nj dentist when I live in Indiana… The picture is rather self-explanatory:

And what makes it even better?? This is in the aisle straight out from the entrance. A.K.A. the most popular place in to park in the whole lot.

What exactly is the point? Are they partying? Going on strike? Playing a prank on the Walmart employees?

I got some funny looks when I got my camera out and went over to take a picture of all these cart returns congregating together, but I couldn’t resist– I had to share with you guys!

Not the most flattering picture ever, taken from the built-in webcam on my laptop a few minutes ago. The batteries for my regular camera were dying though!

As usual, this post signals the end of the weekend. And, as usual, I’m not quite ready for that! It’s been a pretty laid back weekend. I did a little bit of cooking (nothing new for Jenn Cooks, unfortunately), grocery shopping, cleaning, naps, etc. Sounds about like every other weekend I write about Friday I went to Walmart and spent a fortune buying everything except pond filters (but only because I don’t have a pond– if I did, I’d have bought those too!)

Saturday was the cleaning, napping and etc. Today I’ve been playing games online, watching LoTR: FoTR and TTT, and putting together my Christmas shopping list. You heard me. I may even be placing the first order when I get paid on Friday. We’ll see! As it is though, I at least know what I want to get for the majority of the people on my list. There are a few big question marks, as there always are, but hopefully I’ll fill in those blanks soon enough. I’ve got plenty of time!

Well, I said on Sunday that I’d be back to post about going down to the campground on Sunday. I left here a little after noon and got there a little after 1. And uh, spent several hours down there hanging out with them. LOL Not really much to talk about camping — lunch, s’mores, playground and just sitting around! Of course, I’m sure you already realize that posting about my trip down there is just an excuse to post gratuitous pictures of my nephew!

Eating a s’more, which he eventually abandoned in favor of just plain marshmallows.

Falling asleep in the wagon, but didn’t want to lay down, get taken out of the wagon OR go back to the camper. You’d think we were telling him stories about health insurance leads the way he crashed.

But he got a second wind once we got to the playground!

Then a shower, and settling in with a movie in the camper.

I was worn out after one afternoon– they stayed for an entire week!

This is the birthday card I got from my mom this year. How appropriate is that? lol

I’m waiting for my friend Erica to get here so we can go get some lunch, and then in a few hours, it will be time for dinner with my dad’s side of the family — chips and salsa and margaritas! Mmmm! As you might have guessed, I’m playing hooky from work today. Well, I took a vacation day, but either way, I’m not at work!

26 looks pretty good, a few hours in.

Man, I’m such a slacker of a blogger… nearly two weeks without a post! Not even a Self Portrait Sunday post for last week!

As you can probably tell from this picture though, I finally made it up to the beach! First trip for this year… it’s either been cold or rainy all summer, it seems, but Sarah and I finally made it work, and we headed towards the lake after work on Friday. We ended up at the beach in Michigan City– the free beach we usually go to was waaay too busy. I didn’t even get in the water, I just laid on a sheet in the sand, read and enjoyed the sun and the breeze off the lake. It’s just the perfect combination, enough to make you stop looking for south beach hotel deals, at least for awhile. We’ll save that for when the beaches on Lake Michigan are frozen!

Saturday, Gloria and I went to see Harry Potter, and today I went down to visit my mom, Harold and Killian down at the campground where they are staying this week. More on that later… uh, unless I get too lazy of course.

I know I intended to move my financial stuff to a separate blog back in January, but it turns out, I’m not as motivated to write an entire money blog as I originally thought I would be. For awhile there, it was THE thing to do to separate every topic you wrote about and make separate blogs. Except then I felt so spread thin that I spent no time on any blog, and that’s just not useful! They’ve all died a painful death, so now I am stating my intent to bring everything back here.

BUT the purpose of this particular post is my July Financial Update. As you can see, I made some big progress this month! My Chase card is the debt I have been focusing on, and it will likely be paid off when I get paid next, on August 14th. It stands at $535 right now, with a pending payment of $300 that should post on Thursday. When I get paid next week, I’ll make the final $235 payment. There will likely be a small interest charge from the balance this month, but after that I’ll be free of that credit card forever!

And I have to laugh… as soon as I got within striking distance of paying off that credit card, Chase got ticked that they’re not making money off me anymore, and closed my card. They gave me several reasons, but I firmly believe they are bogus (i.e. those reasons have been true since the day they (well, WaMu) GAVE me the card several years ago). The only reason they closed my card is because it’s apparent that I am paying it off, and they won’t be making money off me anymore.

I’m not too upset because it’s not my oldest card, and I never intended to keep it anyway. But I’m still not happy about the ding it will cause on my credit report. Not only is it a closed account, it removes a $3,000 buffer in my credit/debt ratio. I don’t plan on applying for credit anywhere until it’s time to apply for a mortgage though, so hopefully my credit score will have time to recover before then.

Now that I’m so close to paying off the first card, I’m starting to think about where to focus next. It will likely be the Capital One card because it has the next highest interest rate out of the list. Another option, though, is paying off my laptop, which is not represented in the table above. It has the lowest interest rate, and a no interest deal for a few more months, but it’s also a Chase card, and I’m not the happiest Chase customer these days. The interest rate will probably win out over the company though, unless they do something else to screw me over!

Okay, it’s not a self portrait, and it sure wasn’t taken on Sunday, but it’s all you’re going to get, so there! I haven’t showered today, I’ve just been going back and forth between cleaning and being a bum. This picture was taken on Friday at the gun range. Aren’t you scared?

That was how I spent my Friday night, and I have to tell you, I was unprepared for how nervous I was going to be. Public speaking fear has got nothing on the fear for picking up a loaded gun for the first time. It was a .22, I chickened out on shooting the 9mm. I figured start small lol

Saturday was the birthday party for two of my cousins (1 year old, and 3 years old), and after a day full of baby wrangling, I was just worn out! I’ve already told you about today… I need to run the vacuum yet, and take a shower, and then I’m calling it a day. I’m not quite ready to face another work week, but what can you do?