...yes, I'm going...I don't NEED a new book, but I do desperately WANT one...it might be that I don't find one I like, or that I'm not willing to pay as much (happened last time, I found a book I WANT, WANT, WANT...part 8 of a series, but it was $23...er, no. I'll wait for it to come out in paperback.)

I received my cheque for reimbursement of medical expenses...it's for $133.64...that solves my bank loan payment problem....the medical expenses went in my cc and I don't have to pay THAT until the 14th...by which time I will have not only my next salary payment, but for sure the translation money, as well!
woo-hoo!
I love it when things work out!

While my finances are in much better condition, I still haven't gotten to the point where I can afford to live solely off my salary OR the translations...I need BOTH...(at least I'm not trying to decide WHICH debt gets paid and which one doesn't anymore!)...so, yeah, I need to pay the new loan ($209) and Ale's school ($155) and the rent ($175) and there's only $180 in my account right now...I NEED that translation $$$$...hopefully, it'll come before the end of the week (that would be SOOOO great!)...if not, I'll just have to move some money from my "taxes" saving account to the checking account to pay for the loan and the rent, and pay Ale's school (due on the 10th) with my next salary payment (9/5)...Everything else is covered...

ok, last Friday I was working on 2 files. One I sent via email and the other one (a translation for someone in my office) was not finished, so I just filed it in my computer....
Now I cannot find any of them!!!! No problem with the one I emailed, I just have to retrieve it from the sent items box...but, the other one I cannot find! I've looked everywhere!!! I even used the SEARCH function for a name included in the file that was so strange that it HAD to show up, not even then....

ok, the Nat Geo gig is great, and is producing good steady $$$, but they are cheap (average $0.03 cents/word, as opposed to the usual $0.05!)....so, yesterday I had the opportunity to do another job for another customer (which was easy, too, since there were about 8 files- very short- and a lot of the terms repeated! yay!)...so, add $160 more! (to the $1,500 pre-tax I'll get for this month's scripts, payable at the end of Sept- beginning of Oct!) Woo-hoo!!
I was starting to worry because my more lucrative clients hadn't sent me anything in about a month (business is down a bit...)Not too worried, though, because I have more than enough work with the other stuff and, if I am getting paid $100/script and if the trend is to get 10 to 15 scripts per month.... well, you see where I'm going!

The books the school ordered from the US back in May have to pay about $2K in taxes, something that has never happened before (1. they are books. Books are now tax exempt. Or were, at least until the beginning of this year. 2. They are for a school, again, that should make them tax exempt, or at least tax deferred- don't aske me to describe the way our VAT operates, it's really strange, or so I'm told!)...Anyway, the school is trying to solve the problem and, in the meantime, children should bring their old textbooks....oops, I don't know if Ale still has them in one piece (she refuses to throw them away, but she likes to cut out pictures and stuff!)

Yesterday was nuts!...since we are nearing the end of the fiscal year in the US (our fiscal year is the same as our calendar year in ES, 01/01 - 12/31 of each year), well, we've had to look at our budget and decide what we WILL use, to return what we won't need. Of course, that means that whatever we SAID will be spent HAS TO BE SPENT...well, not really, but it makes us look really bad if we have no idea of what our needs will be for the next 1.5 month, don't you think?...mostly, what we have, apart from recurrent expenses (rent, payroll, utilities, gas for the car, etc), are renewals of contracts, which are NOT done automatically, so now I have to dig out all our contracts from last year to request renewal from Procurement...
And, today, I was out all morning and now I have to play catch up!

I submitted a medical expense claim to the insurance company today, for a total of $251...we'll see how much (if any!) I get back... I think the deductible is $74/year, but not really sure...this is for 2 neurologist visits / tests/ medicines, so it's really not bad!

Yep. She needs new ones...she outgrew most of the stuff...
she is down to 1 skort, 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants...

I already bought the material to have 1 skort made...and I gave her $25 today, which I hope will cover 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of paints...if not, I told her to get the shirts and I'll give her the money for the pants later on (PE classes on Fridays and Tuesdays, only, so...)

LOL! my landlady is crazy, or too naive...or else she thinks I am...
A little over a month ago she brought a new contract to our house (technically, we need an amendment to the old contract we have - "renewable automatically if none of the parties gives written notice to the other of their intention to terminate the contract"- because of the increase in rent.... What's wrong with that?
#1- she brought me a NEW contract, not an ammendment/extension
#2- the contract states I have to pay her 1 month deposit at new rent rate (no, I gave her a month's deposit when we signed the old one. I will gladly pay the difference for the new rent rate if she wants to, but I will NOT give her ANOTHER full month's rent...)
#3- As far as I know, lease contracts include reponsibilities for both lessor and lesee...this ones included MY responsibilities, but very conveniently left out hers!....

I read the contract and called her and told her so. She didn't do anything. Today she went to my house to collect the docs and was upset that they were not signed. I repeated to her what was wrong with it and the reasons I will not sign.
She tells me:
A. "you should have told me before!" (I DID, she just chose to ignore me!)
B. "I have already paid the lawyer for drafting the papers, but I really hadn't read them" (hmmm, that's really not intelligent at all, besides, It's not MY fault! - and, personally, my lawyer would skin me alive if I ever accepted a document from her without reading it!...cannot tell you what she'd do to me if I signed something without reading it, or without actually agreeing to it)
C. "It's not really binding, you know, you've rented the house for so long and we've always had a good relationship, you know we would never really enforce it"...(excuse me, last I checked a SIGNED contract IS binding!)

She took the documents, and was not too happy about it, but I hope she realizes she cannot try to pull this sort of thing on me! ugh!

The battery is not charging right...or else it's discharging too fast...it's lasting less than 2 days...I miss my Nokia cellphone...it could "live" 5 days with one charge....back when I used about 200 minutes per month! (LOTS more than what I use now!)....

I asked at cellphone company #1 what their cheapest Nokia was, with a chip that wasn't sealed into the phone for prepaid plans.... they don't have any...Nokia phones are only sold with plans...nope, not going to happen...I will not sign up for 18 months ...

sis was silly enough to do that for niece and, guess what!...she dropped her water glass on top of the new cell phone 2 days after they got it!!!...Now she doesn't have a cellphone, and sis is still tied paying for 18 months!!!

So....I will go on line and find out which phones they DO have for prepaid plans, to see which one I like (as we say here, it has to have the 3 b's: bueno, bonito y barato - good, nice and cheap!)

I still have some time...

In February, Ale needed new shoes for school. I bought her a size 2 pair, which were a bit large for her at the time, and, since they were having a 2X1, I bought a size 3 pair for the new school year (starting next week)...sis said I was exagerating and that I would probably have to save the size 3 shoes for the FOLLOWING year (Aug 09)...turns out, I was right! Those size 3 shoes are the perfect size right now (which means I will probably hit the 2X1 sale in Sept/Oct for a size 4 and size 5! LOL!)...oh, yes, those size 3 shoes also fit my sis! LOL!

Well, we are on Holiday (today is our last day, though, so tomorrow we start work again...except Ale, who starts a new school year on Tuesday )...we've had a couple strong earthquakes (strong enough to wake me up at night: one was 5.4 and the other one 5.1 - Richter scale)...nothing too bad, no damages, but enough to be scary (not scary enough to get up and get out of the house, though, as the first one was at around 1am and the other one at around 3am)
I took 4 days "off" (meaning I DID have work to do- translations- but I chose not to work for those 4 days: Fri-Mon...my brain needs a rest! LOL!)

Didn't do much, but we have spent some $$$$...went to the movies, bought pizza for 6 people...went to the Children's museum...stuff like that... other than that, just enjoyed the luxury of getting up at around 10 am!!!! (I'm a night person, I REALLY don't do mornings...I'm fully convinced my brain isn't really operational until 9am!)