A Time For Everything

So Friday I had a last minute opportunity to see Miss Saigon at Casa Manana, a local theater. Of course, I accepted.




I'd never seen it before, so I found it quite interesting and, of course, sad. Musical and tragedy seem oxymoronic, but that is exactly what this show is. If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's the tragic tale of an American soldier who falls in love with a Vietnamese girl shortly before the fall of Saigon. He tries to get her out, but is unable to and is, of course, sent back home to America. Eventually he marries, though he still dreams of his Vietnamese wife.

The Vietnamese girl, meanwhile has borne the soldier's child and holds out hope that her soldier is coming for her and that he'll take her back to the States and they'll live happily ever after.

Eventually, things come to a head and the soldier, along with his wife, travels to Bangkok to make arrangements for his son's care. The girl is heartbroken to learn that her soldier is married, but insists they take the child back to America. Realizing her dream is now dust, she kills herself.

Sonshine, surprisingly, enjoyed it and said he'd wouldn't mind seeing another musical or play. He's not too sure about opera or ballet though.

I liked it too, and would love to see it on the silver screen, though not as a musical like they did with Les Miserables and like they're considering.

Have you seen Miss Saigon? What did you think of it?

Okay, so I don't have a farm. But it's been a while since I mentioned my yard. I've been doing a lot of weeding lately. Unfortunately, there are sooooo many weeds, it's hard to tell that I am pulling anything, until I started in on this patch. This is after day one:



And this is after day two:



I have many many more patches to go...but at ten to thirty minutes a day I'm actually doing pretty well. I might have them all pulled by next spring. Then I can start on the dandelions.

The Chinese wisteria is growing like a weed. It likes the heat apparently. The azaleas, on the other hand, aren't doing very well at all. I've added watering cycles so the timer, but I don't know if they're gonna make it.

Wisteria...


Azalea...


My mini-roses are blooming again too...that's a three-tiered planter. The yellow are on the bottom, the pink on the top. The middle one is taking a break I guess.



Last but not least, my corner flower bed. The plants themselves are green and growing, but no blooms for a while. One of the Sweet Williams just blossomed, but that's the only one.


Are you a green thumb?

PS--Sorry for the various picture qualities. Some were taken in the morning, others in the evening, so the light variations differ....

Okay, so I've got this groovy new software for tracking my money and divvying it up for bills and savings and emergency funds. But I've got to wait for the money to come in before I can do anything with it.

And I've got this exciting new career as a freelance proofreader to help augment my day job income. Except, it seems as if I do a lot of waiting for the jobs to show up...

Luckily I haven't had to wait (much) for payments once the jobs are done. But, man, I badly want out of debt and some savings built up!! I know these things take time. I do. But ugh... Okay, enough whining. I shouldn't have gotten into so much debt in the first place, right? Right!

I think I scared off one gal the other morning. We emailed back and forth a couple of times and then she asked about cost. Actual cost was almost double what she estimated. Haven't heard back from her, and it's been almost two days... I also had a guy e-mail me and when I told him how much, I never heard back. You know, a simple, "I can't afford that right now." would have been polite and courteous. And I would have understood. I'm not the most expensive proofreader on the planet, but services aren't cheap either.

I've thought about adjusting rates again. I mean, several jobs at a slightly less expensive rate are better than no jobs at any rate, right?  I'll see how it goes. I've only advertised one place and the rest have been word of mouth jobs from my critique partners. That was before I raised my rates. One job (still waiting for it to arrive) since I upped them.

On the other hand, I've been reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I've gleaned that faith is a core component of achieving your goal. The other thing is, I'm a good proofreader. I'm worth what I'm charging, which is not the cheapest, but not the most expensive deal in town either. Tough call, though. In addition, I've been listening to some marketing webinars. Mostly for DH and targeted at the IT industry, but some things cross industries. And now I've got a few marketing ideas. I have to be careful still since I'm only one person and still working that day job.

In the meantime, I'm trying to expand my range of services, which will, of course, increase (hopefully) the inflow of cash.

What services would be helpful to writers, freeing up their time to actually write??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

It's even Movie Monday, but I couldn't bring myself to watch a movie. Just had no desire to do so, so MM is taking a hiatus for however long I feel like it.

But Fort Worth Friday will return. Sonshine and I had our date yesterday morning and he wielded the camera, so who knows how the pics turned out. Kidding! I'm sure they're fine. I'll be sorting them this week and prepping for future posts.

I still have one last day of pics from Nashville, but I'm sorta tired of the topic, so I'll just post the link to the albums once they're up.

I spent a lot of time on research last week. Not for writing purposes, as I've shifted focus, but for life/financial and business purposes. First I decided I needed an accounting software package for my proofreading business so I Googled those. What I found, eventually, was budget software. Which, yes, I need for business, but actually caught my eye for our personal finances. Its philosophy is simple: Every dollar needs a job. It's easy to use once you get how it all works. It's a very short, barely there learning curve. It also offers a 34-day free trial.

So I downloaded the You Need a Budget software. Herein known as YNAB. All the features are available in the trial. It's not an online thing like Mint.com, though the files are saved into Dropbox and sync with any PCs and devices like smartphones you're gonna use. Very handy!

I added all my data. Figured out how to tweak it to account for all my buckets. That's a term hubby and I use to refer to a specific holding account for something. Like the grocery bucket. All funds designated for food, would be in the grocery bucket. It opened my eyes to how poorly I've managed our money this year. I was--I AM--very disappointed in myself.

I had big plans--as short a time ago as Thursday--for my proofreading earnings. But now I see that aside from the $100 per month I'm putting in a certain credit card bucket (on top of the regular payment plus the payment rolled over from the other CC I just paid off), everything else just needs to go into the main coffer to replenish the money that's been spent here and there on random incidentals over and above the budgeted allowable amount.Yikes!

So back to the drawing board. But now I have my own income that I earn outside of our other business. I feel so much more free and happy and in control of things than I did just a few short months ago. Amazing what a vacation and an attitude adjustment will do for you.

Hope you had a great weekend!!!

Unfortunately, I am out of pictures of Fort Worth. Which means I need to make another trip around town to get some. I haven't had time to go adventuring, so my apologies. Which means I'm pre-empting today's Fort Worth Friday. I've a tentative date set with Sonshine to get breakfast downtown on Sunday and then meander around. He has an interest in architecture too. Fort Worth Friday should be back on track in two weeks. In the meantime...

Random stuff is random.

So this past Wednesday I talked about all the walking I did in Nashville last week and how I've been attempting to keep up the good work/walk (lol) since I've been back. The first few days were okay, but they got tougher. Especially at 5AM. So I skipped a few in trying to listen to my body's needs. I think I'm over the hump for now. And while the walking is great, it doesn't specifically target my waist line.

There was a time when I did calisthenics at least three to four times a day in conjunction with my trips to the rest room. I have a standard cache of things I do, and they were helpful in getting my blood flowing (cuz I sit on my keister most of the day) and working the muscles around my waist. Now I've got an expanded waist line and I don't like it. So I'm back to some calisthenics. Not the full regime, but getting there. And one of these days, I'll get back to serious calorie counting using MyFitnessPal. I just can't seem to say no everything I should right now. Though, yesterday I opted for home brewed unsweet tea rather than hitting QT for rootbeer or Mickey D's for sweet tea. One NO at a time, I guess.

Remember those life lessons I posted last month and waxed poetic about?? Well, between those and my much-needed, long overdue vacation (short as it was), I've got a totally new attitude. I needed one. I was getting kind of grumpy and crabby.

And I've got some new goals. Some of those life lessons come into play and some are financial. DH is having me listen to some marketing seminars so that we can get our business to a few new levels. Anyway, these seminars are also beneficial for me in the proofreading business when the time comes that I want to and can take on more work. And I found this really cool budgeting software. It sorta does what I do in a spreadsheet, but automates it. I'm using a 34-day free trial, but I really like it so I'm pretty sure I'll end up buying it. I was originally looking for an inexpensive accounting software for the proofing biz, but happened upon this instead. But I s'pose I'll still need an accounting package...more research. Though Quicken seems like the most popular. Maybe I'll look for an iPad app and see what I stumble upon.

So lots of cool and exciting things going on in my world at the moment.

What about you?? What cool and exciting things are going on with YOU?

I really do want to know!