5

Although no official word has yet been given, it seems pretty certain that the 11 furlough days planned for at the start of this will be reduced to 6 days.  Financially, this is great news, and while I have not accomplished everything on my list of things I had planned to do on furlough days, I feel that I have definitely made progress, and crossed off some of the higher priority items! 

That being said, last Friday was furlough day #5 and this coming Friday will be furlough day #6, and possibly my last furlough day (for this year anyway)!

Friday I got up and made myself pancakes for breakfast, a definite perk of not having to rush off to work!  I then made a much needed trip to the grocery store ... I was thrilled when I pulled into the empty parking lot, thinking this was going to be the fastest, least stressful Safeway trip ever ... unfortunately not the case!  It was that day that Safeway was reorganizing their entire store, unstocking shelves and loading up carts that were all over the isles, taking down and rebuilding shelves, and restocking shelves, it was quite a mess, and took me forever to hunt for what I needed and get out of there, BUT, I can't complain too much, because, I had the time!!!!!

When I got home I made a pasta salad for a party I was going to on Saturday, and then I headed downtown to meet some friends for lunch.  Otakon was in town this weekend, and usually a group of us from work eat lunch outside just to observe the crowd ... I decided I shouldn't miss out just because of the furlough, and I must say, it was well worth it!

When I got home from lunch I vacuumed out my car, something I've been meaning to do for a while now, and then it was time to head out to get my oil changed.  While there, I asked for a quote to have my fog lights replaced because somehow both of them have holes in them.  I was told that it was a common problem, and that it would cost $683 to fix!  My initial thought was, "why would I pay $683 (on a furlough budget mind you), to fix something that would most likely happen again," and I then asked, "is it a real problem to not get them replaced?"  I was told that the only thing that could happen is that if water got in the lights might not work.  I decided, if it's not obvious, that it was not worth it, and justified my decision with the fact that I really rarely drive my car, and it's even more rare that I drive it in the rain (which is how water would get in a create a problem) ... then I drove back to Baltimore in a torrential downpour - go figure!

When I got back to the city, I spent some time with a friend before taking him to the airport, and when I got back home, decided to cancel my plans for the evening and stayed home and painted my stairs instead!  The stairs had been painted before I moved in this ugly brown color ... they are now a lovely charcoal!

Saturday morning I got up and had to run to the post office to pick up a package, for whatever reason, even when I leave the signed form on my mailbox, they will not leave the package on my steps!  When I got home I finished up the pasta salad for the party I was going to, and also made a vegetable pizza to take!  It was then time to get ready and head to the party where I spent a lovely afternoon/evening with great people and great food!

Sunday I got up and got to work on my stairs again ... it is quite a challenge to paint stairs/railings when you need to also be able to use them, so I got as much done as possible, but was unable to finish completely, hopefully that will happen this week!  While I had all the paint supplies out, I decided to go out and finish up sealing my back fence, so that's finally completely done!

After I cleaned up from painting I got a call from my Mom saying she had food, so I headed home to have dinner with her, saw my brother, and came back to Baltimore with lots of leftovers!

Hopefully this week I'll be able to plan and prep for everything I want to get done next weekend so that I can make the most of my last (even though I'm not holding my breath) furlough weekend!