Is it wrong that I still have a bedroom closet filled with stuff over at my mom’s house? It’s mostly just paperbacks, textbooks, yearbooks, trophies, certificates, and other memorabilia from my school days. The stuff doesn’t even take up that much space, but my mom calls me every few months asking me if she can throw everything out.

I wish I had room to store the books at my house, but I don’t. Is it asking too much for my mom to hold on to these items? Isn’t this a normal thing for adult children to do?? Sheesh!

Since I work from home most of the time, I of course need to have a bit of office space for my computer, reference books, and files. We don’t have a spare room to accommodate these things, and even if we did, I probably wouldn’t use it since I don’t want to completely isolate myself from my family. So the best compromise we could come up with was to section off the back part of the living room and set up my stuff there.

This arrangement has worked tolerably well for the past two years, though there are definitely times when I wish I had a fourth wall and a door to shut out the traffic and noise. Heck, I’d even settle for a couple of pieces of velvet theater rope to keep my son and his friends from letting their games of tag or hide-and-seek spill over into my office!

On the whole, however, I do like my current setup. I’ve got everything I need within reach of my desk, plus a nice big window right next to me, which lets in all the sunlight and fresh air I could want. Plus, if I swivel 180 degrees in my chair, I can watch the ballgame on our big 37-inch LCD screen or check out the playroom to see what my son is up to. This sure beats a corporate cubicle any day!

I’ve been on a real reading tear (well, for me anyway) in 2008. After the first six months of the year, I’ve already read 30 books! I usually don’t keep track like this, but since I have to write up the reviews for Reviews and More, it’s easy to see where I stand.

In looking over the list of titles I’ve finished this year, I see that most of the stuff I’ve read fall into the mystery/detective/crime thriller genre (Agatha Christie, Michael Connelly). I also have more “modern” novels (written in the past 10-15 years or so) than I usually read, but very few classics (only Walden and Sybil).

I’d definitely like to keep up this pace for the next six months, and don’t foresee any problems with achieving this mark. However, I’m going to make much more of an effort to insert more classics into my list instead of sticking with the easy stuff. One a month should do, beginning with something from Dickens. Both The Pickwick Papers and Martin Chuzzlewit are available as free audiobooks at Librivox, so I’ll likely go with one of those.

It’s official: I’m completely clueless when it comes to interior design. I don’t know the first thing about how to dress up a room or how to make a certain area more functional. I don’t know how to arrange furniture in an attractive way, nor do I know how to add flair with the right accessories. And I certainly don’t know the differences between the top brand names and manufacturers of appliances, faucets, or furnishings.

Is Kenmore better than Amana? Where does Whirlpool fit in? Are Danze faucets as good as everyone says? Should I go ahead and pay more for Ethan Allen furniture? Heck, I have no idea!

That’s why I’m going to bite the bullet and have an professional come in to help me out. Jerry and I want to start entertaining more, so we’ve been talking about redoing our home for a long time now. Since he’s do a performance bonus at work next month, this seems like a good time to get the ball rolling.

I’d love to begin either in the kitchen or the living room, but really, every room needs an overhaul, so we can’t go wrong wherever we decide to start!

One of Jerry’s bosses is retiring after 40 years of service, and his wife is throwing a big party next weekend. I don’t really like these types of events because I’m not going to know anyone else there, but this isn’t something Jerry can just blow off.

So now I’ve got to scramble to find something to wear that night (it’s not as though I have a closet full of cocktail dresses and evening gowns) and also come up with a decent gift to give to the retiree. We don’t know the man well enough to warrant getting him a gold watch or a set of golf clubs, so we’re kind of stuck for ideas.

Personally, I think we should find out if he’s a drinker. If he is, we can get him a membership to one of those wine of the month clubs that seem to be so popular these days.

At any rate, I’m just glad Jerry told me about this party early enough that I have time to do some shopping. Usually he forgets until a couple days before, so this is definitely an improvement!

I know that I added my phone number to the national Do Not Call Registry when it was first made available a few years ago, but my mealtimes are still getting interrupted by random telemarketers. Granted, I don’t get as many of these sales pitches as I did before, but I do wonder why they’re still calling.

I have people calling to tell me I’ve won a new TV, and all I have to do to claim it is sign up for “x” service; people calling to ask if I want another auto insurance quote; people calling to inquire about my interest in purchasing a Florida timeshare…

No thanks. I’ve never bought anything based on an unsolicited phone call, and I don’t think I would start now. It kind of makes me wonder who does make these types of purchases, because after all, there’s a reason that telemarketing is such a huge industry. If nobody was buying, then these places would go out of business pretty fast!

I know I haven’t mentioned my braces on this blog very much, so some of you might have forgotten that I’ve been undergoing orthodontic treatment for the past year and a half. It’s been a big hassle for the most part, but I’m happy to say that the general discomfort and inconvenience will end very soon, as I’m scheduled to have my braces removed in two more weeks.

Shortly after the big day, I want to schedule a session with a professional photographer to have a formal family portrait taken. We’ve never had one before, and since I’ve pretty much been avoiding photo opps of all kinds for 18 months, I think this would be a great time to get a professional portrait.

Depending on how things turn out, I might even go a step further and look into custom picture framing to make the portrait really special.

We’ll see… all I know is that I’m excited to finally be getting my braces off!

After just barely scraping by in the last couple of months, I think that a new budget is in order. The combination of rising prices on everyday items along with a steady decrease in my earnings as a freelance writer means that I’ve got to tinker with the budget to see where we can cut corners and free up some extra cash. So for the next few hours I’m going to be running cable TV, ISP, and auto insurance comparison checks, and I’m going to start taking a harder look at online coupon sites as well.

Obviously, there are a million other things I’d rather be doing with my time, but unfortunately, the budget takes precedence for now.

I was talking to an old friend from school today, and the conversation inevitably led back to our time in college together. We started reminiscing about one of the dumbest things we ever did together, which was the time we decided to take a year off and just bum around. Of course, we didn’t want to do that in Chicago (our hometown), so we figured we’d get an apartment. In Boston. With $800 between us, and no leads for any kind of Boston jobs at all.

As you can imagine, that episode didn’t exactly turn out very well. We made it to Boston safely enough, and crashed with a mutual friend for a couple of days. Then, we decided that it was more fun spending time sightseeing and sunning on the beach in Cohasset, so we didn’t bother looking for apartments or jobs after that. We burned through our funds in two weeks, and then had to call my parents to beg them to wire us gas money to get back home.

Oh, and needless to say, we sheepishly returned to school that fall, since we had no other prospects to look forward to!

I’ve been trying to come up with a better workout routine for the four days a week where I don’t go to the gym. Right now, I just go for a 30-minute walk (weather permitting) or spend 20-30 minutes on a mini-stepper. While that’s certainly better than nothing, I feel that I need to do more on these off days.

The problem is that we have a pretty small place, so there’s not a heck of a lot of room to put fitness equipment in here. That means full-sized treadmills and weight benches are out, leaving me with… what? Jogging? My knees can’t take the impact anymore. Jumping rope? I’d feel foolish doing that out in the driveway. Biking? There aren’t a lot of sidewalks or bike paths around here, so I wouldn’t feel safe doing that.

Maybe once I figure this out, I’ll finally be able to make some progress in the weight loss department!

Since the PayPal Money Market Fund 7-day yield continues to drop, I’ve decided that it’s not worth keeping my money in there anymore. Instead, I’m going to start reviewing different mutual fund prospectuses and will invest in one or two that have relatively stable track records. I’m going to start off with small amounts (a lot of these funds require as little as $500 for the initial investment) and just see where it goes from there.

My husband and I have no retirement nest egg built up except for the pension he’ll get from his company, so we really need to think seriously about building a portfolio for our future.

We’ve put off painting our home’s exterior for as long as possible, but we absolutely must get to it this summer. The cracked and peeling paint looks terrible and is turning our house into the eyesore of the neighborhood. Sure, we could have avoided this whole mess if we’d gone with vinyl siding during construction, but now we’re stuck.

I’ve already put in a couple of calls to get people to come out here for estimates. Hopefully this project won’t eat up too much of our savings, especially since things are tight enough these days. Maybe we’ll just pay some high school students to do it instead of getting professionals!

I’ve had problems with my back ever since I was in high school. For some reason, I can’t sleep on the same surface for too long because my back can’t handle it. So I can take the bed for about a month, but then I have to move to the couch for a week before going back to the bed (or maybe even the floor!). It’s a bit crazy, but that’s how I’ve been for 20 years now!

I’ve tried just about every bed out there (except for waterbeds and platform beds) with the same results. Nothing seems to work for me!

Yes, I’ve talked to my doctor about this, but he can’t find anything medically wrong with my back, so all he does is recommend strengthening exercises.

So here I am fresh off a night on the couch. I need a solution that works!

Whew, today was a very long day and now I’m completely exhausted. I woke up at 5:30am as usual even though I don’t set my alarm on weekends, and basically haven’t stopped doing things since then. I began by knocking out a few writing assignments I had, as well as taking care of some emails and other administrative tasks before my husband and son woke up. Then I made breakfast, did some cleaning, threw in a load of laundry, and went grocery shopping.

I also had to take my car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change while my husband and son went to the mall (presumably for my Mother’s Day present). After that, it was off to a friend’s house for a barbecue and the Cubs game. The food and drinks were great, but most everyone was too chilly sitting on the patio, so we ended up helping move the outdoor furniture into the basement to accommodate the guests down there.

On the way home, we stopped at Blockbuster so I could rent a few DVDs for the upcoming week and then went to Baskin-Robbins because my son was hungry again.

So here I am ready to fall into bed at 7:30 on a Saturday night. I’m really starting to feel my age these days!

Who needs to wait until Memorial Day weekend for the first outdoor barbecue of the season? Not my friends Rachel and Steve, apparently. They’re having a get-together at their place on Saturday afternoon, and we’re invited! It’s supposed to be 65 degrees and sunny that day, so the weather shouldn’t be much of a factor at all. We’ll just be able to sit out on the patio in their beautiful teak furniture, drink a few beers, scarf down some burgers and hot dogs, and watch the Cubs take on the Diamondbacks. Sounds like a terrific way to spend my Saturday!