Just wanted to pass this along. I am looking into getting a subscription to Budget Travel Magazine. I have a couple of issues I have bought and have the annoying little subscription cards that come in them. I have been meaning to subscribe but haven't managed to put the card in the mail yet so I went online to subscribe that way. Get this--the card in the Mag offers the subscription for $10/yr the website charges $12/yr--What gives????
Do other mags do that too???

I work at a place that is basically full of unhappy people for various reasons--lack of leadership, old equipment, high cost of living, no work-life balance, etc. Anyway we had an all hands meeting yesterday where the head honchos announced that everyone will be receiving at least a 10% raise effective immediately. Not bad. Actually because of the high cost of living in the area we are now not a far from earning a decent wage for the area.
Immediately I redid my budget to reflect the new numbers. I will be putting some of it towards debt, increasing my monthly savings, adding a small amount to my spending money and a small amount to my gas budget. By increasing my gas budget I will now be able to volunteer at dolphine Research center in the keys--its a 140 mile round trip! I used to train dolphins at another facility and one of my dolphins is down at DRC so I will get to see her and work with her again. It will also help me keep my training skills up to date so if I go back into the field I won't be out of the loop.

I finally got my fan installed this weekend. I have not had the A/C lower than 78 since. I need a cool room to sleep at night and the fan is doing a marvelous job even at 78. Hopefully it will make a large impact on the power bill. The only thing I am a bit worried about is that I have a goldfish (her name is Fluffy) and her water temp has risen a bit since the A/C has been at a higher temp. Now I know goldfish are hardy individuals--God knows she would be dead already if she wasn't--but I dont want to stress her by having her water so warm. Although at almost 5 inches long I am seriously considering getting her a new tank. Right now she is in a 10gal but I don;t have a filter in the aquarium and with the warmer temps come more algae growth and her tank gets dirtier quicker. OK I have babbled enoght about the fish.
My computer has also been having issues getting on the internet. I have called tech support with Bellsouth and they couldn't diagnose the problem. Fortunely my dad has a friend that is a former IT guy and he agreed to look at it. Well, apparently the virus protection and firewall that Bellsouth has as part of their service is useless--Without going into techno speak because I don;t know any of it, basically my computer should have been declared a disaster area by the CDC--Full of viruses and various other bad stuff. I should be getting it back tonight and will once again be able to spend copious amounts of time wasting time on the computer! And the cost???? A bottle of Gin--my kind of tech support!!

I just hate tolls but in some cases I think they are a necessary evil in order to maintain the roads. Anyway, since moving to Florida I have had to suck it up and pay road tolls. Fortunetly I don;t have to travel a toll road every day. The highway department ran a special last week where they offered their sunpass at 50% off. Instead of $25.00 for the transponder it was only $12.50 so I decided to get one. Using the sunpass saves time and about 25% off the regular tolls. Every little bit helps.

My pots and pans are about to stand on their last legs! I would like to see what everyone else uses and how happy you are with them. I am not looking for the K-mart cheap sets--no offense I have had many a cheap sets--I just want some decent quality pots and pans that will last a long time
Thanks