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We have a hurricane headed this way. It is expected to make landfall Sunday as a category 3. I am prepared as I am going to be at the point, but I will make one last trip to the store & gas station when I get off work this afternoon. Hopefully it won't be too crazy. I just want to grab any last thing that I can think of. Stay safe with these fires & hurricanes out there! 💨🔥
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Hi guys.I am $7,000 away from being at $500k investments!!!  Took a long time coming as I put so much towards the rentals. the rentals are paying off though. Average monthly for the year NET is $9800. I have not been hit by any major costs though. so no roofs or big window jobs. I will want to save up for those. I am up $3000/month  on the average more than with the old property mgr even though his rate was 5% of rents and the new guy is 6.5% of rents. BIG difference....
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I was volunteering at my usual food bank today and we got an unexpected milk donation from one of the local grocery stores early this morning before we opened. We were able to give most of it away, but there were still a few gallons left after we closed so the distribution manager said the volunteers could take a gallon if we wanted. We don't have any way to store it so I was OK with taking a gallon home so it wouldn't go to waste. 
It was funny because I had planned to go...
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I went for an oil change this morning.  I needed a new cabin filter as well, so the total was $81.  Afterwards, I went to the gym, and then to Walgreens, where I bought some nuts and dried fruit, and picked up an 8 x 10 print of GS2 on his first day of middle school.  Total was $12.
It was very hot yesterday, and it will be very hot today.  I'm staying inside with the air on -- no cooking planned.  They say this heat wave won't break till Sunday or Monday.
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In my last blog post, I commented I started a new book that had coffee recipes. It was a murder mystery by Emmeline Duncan called, "Fresh Brewed Murder." The main character, Sage, runs a coffee cart with her business partner Harley. 
One fellow blogger asked that I share some of the recipes. 
 
Simple Sage Syrup
2 cups water
2 cups sugar (can be white, brown, etc.)
20 fresh sage leaves
Bring water to a boil in saucepan and add sugar until it melts. Add the...
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I posted recently that we had a dramatic week.  It's only gotten worse from there.  Ugh...
A lot of mini dramas.  But the large drama is one of the big fires in our state.  I expected last Tuesday night that our family cabin was long gone.  The cabin still stands because...  The wind has been blowing (for a whole week) in the opposite direction.  Of course, now it is looking like it will be a miracle if either the cabin or our family camp site...
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I'm a bit behind on entries, it's actually the start of week 6, but I will report week 6 at the end of the week.  After my last entry where I was getting annoyed with the job hunting process all of a sudden everything sped up into action.  In our state we have generally had short snap lockdowns this year so I think a lot of potential employers were just waiting out the lockdown (I have found that a lot of potential employers prefer to interview in person rather than Zoom;...
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I went to the gym yesterday and then to its next-door neighbor, Sam's Club.  I only wanted two items -- Member's Mark detergent pods, and lactase (dairy aid).  They had neither!  I ended up buying Gain pods, and a package of raspberries, since I was there.  Total was $35.  Then I came home and ordered a dairy aid from Amazon.  I had credits, so the cost was a very reasonable $10 for two bottles (240 caplets).
I still don't know what my income from...
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It's been a great summer of eating well. Between DH's garden and our CSA share box, we've had some marvelous eats! Hopefully I will get enough canned and preseved for a good winter as well. Today, at church, one of our pew buddies said his dad picked two large zucchini and did I want them? Of course I wanted them! If nothing else, I will shred them and freeze it. I bought the share box to force myself to try new things as well as enjoy some of our favorites. I never thought DH...
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Well as of yesterday I am fully vaccinated, only hubby left to finish up..luckily I didn't really have any side effects from it just a sore spot on my arm...so that was a relief.
 
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I met my friend for lunch in our usual city, but different restaurant.  "Our" place was closed.  We had to go to one that did not have outdoor dining -- it was really too hot for outdoor dining, anyway.  We wore masks until we were served, but of course, had to take them off to eat.  I'm a little concerned because we were in Indiana, which I think is going to become the next Florida.  Republican governor, soaring positivity rate, low compliance to recommendations,...
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Hi all,
We are having a big birthday party for my grandma's 100th birthday next weekend. It will be at my brother's house. I will finally get to meet my sister in law! They've been married now just over 3 years.
I'm a little nervous about it, considering the upsurge in cases, both here, and in the San Francisco area. But unlike last summer, I am vaccinated (and my grandma at the very least is) so, not too worried.
I leave Friday morning and come back on Monday. DH won't be coming...
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Thank you for the kind condolences on the passing of my cousin. It still feels unbelieveable. We had the funeral on a Wednesday night & the gravesite dismissal the following morning. Immediately following the dismissal I got on the road to pick up the key for my new apartment. I had packed my car with some cleaning supplies & some important papers that I didn't want transported by the movers. I made it back to my condo that night.
The following morning I was up at 5 to...
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Recently I mentioned that we bought a half share in a CSA this summer. It has been great -- all those fresh vegetables and I'm being challenged to use things I normally would not have purchased. I was delighted to get a zucchini. I know there are those jokes about people giving people zucchini in secret to get rid of them, but sadly, I don't know anyone who grows zucchini. Anyway. I ran across this recipe and decided to try it for a change. DH had a piece last night and declared...
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The Florida house did close on 8/10 as scheduled. All went pretty smoothly. I had to run around a bit to get the paperwork notarized and sent back but that was minor.
Final result was me walking away with $477,203.26. It went into the estate account for now. I'll get it once the probate period ends in early October. There's now over $547,000 in that account.
That means that our overall portfolio now stands at over $3.1 million. That's well above where I thought we'd be with the...
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Yesterday I got my hair cut -- first time since June 3.  I had my hairdresser take off two inches and it feels so much better.  It was quite expensive.  The shop's price for a woman's haircut is $73, and I only had a $20 bill for a tip, so I gave him that.  Yikes, almost $100 for a haircut!  At least with this style I don't have to get it trimmed too often.
My hair looked amazing until two hours later when the humidity spoiled it.  Oh well. ...
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I haven't tried to log in since the day it kept logging me out whenever I hit post.  Notsomuch because I was fed up as that I wasn't doing particularly well.  The migraine to end all migraines hit me.  It was so bad I was having aural hallucinations.  I mean, I see auras all the time, it's part of my synesthesia, but they are tiny.  Like 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch and usually only on living things.  Not only was I seeing them on everything, they were 8 inches...
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I had some major tree work done earier this week, spending more on "trimming" and cabling a very large silver maple than I have on any tree takedowns in the past 25 years.  I'm glad to have it behind me. It's very hard to even see the cables, but they are there, four of them to help support the massive limbs of this 200-year-old tree.

There were 2 guys in the tree (look for the orange) and 2 on the ground, chipping.
My garden is still producing well. Picked 49 cherry tomatoes...
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This has been a spendier month so far. $250 for car repairs, 6 month car insurance payment came out, and I have scheduled an eye appointment to get a new Rx so I can order more contacts. Also have a minor medical procedure coming up in late August that I am sure will involve some out of pocket cost, though not sure of the exact amount yet.
 
On the fun spending side I finally decided to get a bicycle, to see if I can run more local errands on it when I don’t have time...
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This week has been busy with appointments it seems that's all our lives are lately...well I have 2 appts tomorrow and one thursday...on tomorrow is a zoom appointment..first time doing one of those..so should be interesting but hopefully will be able to get some good helpful advice...and start on the road to recovery.
financially we haven't really been spending money other than groceries...and i think we have spent more than we usually do but wanted to restock the cupboards and...
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