I had a good surprise when I got home today, a notice that Amazon.com had sold a book I had listed with them for sale.  When the tv show The Real Housewives of New Jersey came on, at the center of controversy with the character Danielle Staub was a book called Cop Without a Badge: The Extraordinary Undercover Life of Kevin Maher by Charles Kipps.  When I saw the book cover, I knew I had the book here. On 6-6-09,  I wrote on Facebook: “I just realized I have an out of print book here that is suddenly in the news, so I listed it to sell at a ridiculous price at amazon.com. Let’s see what happens.”

Then on 6-8-09,  I wrote on Facebook: “OMG the book I listed on amazon.com the other day is now the only one available. Too funny. I listed it on a whim.”

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YinYang is very territorial and I’ve seen her pitch her little fits

My cats each have their own favorite places to sleep and hang out. Giant Maine Coon Izzy likes to be stationed either at the hallway, so he can see anything that comes in the cat door or the front and back doors.  My sleek haired, black and white masked harlequin YinYang likes to be in a box top on top of an end table by the tv, with a view toward the living room and backyard.  When Izzy finds YinYang in his spot every so often, he just acts like he didn’t even notice and goes elsewhere.  When Yinny finds Izzy in her spot however, she goes all King Kong on his fuzzy butt. Continue reading →

Today is typically the day I do my paperwork for the magazine mailing this weekend, but I was smart this time and did it all yesterday.  In fact, I did it in record time – about 5 hours – since I managed to stay off Facebook and Twitter.  It’s amazing how quickly the work goes when I jump right into it rather than whining to myself for an hour that I’d rather play instead.  I learned that if I do the work a day early, then I am not rushing at the last minute.  That idea was as helpful as learning to bill early enough that the payments are all in by the time the bills need to be paid.  I’ve now got it down to a science. The next  best idea was pre-paying my printer every week so that by the time my job goes in, it’s paid for.  Last year I got behind with them just from not paying attention to what I was doing. When they finally called it to my attention I was really embarrassed.  Now I just order a check sent several times a month and by the time it goes in, it’s paid for. Continue reading →