One of the larger jobs was not paid yet. I spent: $1.30 for traditional candy at the mall (Ale begged and, since she can't eat the colored ones at the moment, I gave in!), I also went to the toy store and, I found a bike that was a bit more expensive, but had 18 rim tires, so it's bigger than the ones I had seen before and, will last her longer. She tried it and she can use it - it does have training wheels!...we can pay it with 25% downpayment and 3 installments without paying interest, so I paid ~$25 also bought the protective gear...I separated $6 for our vegetables tomorrow (change) and, put the remaining $$$ in a safe place, so I don't have it with me today and tomorrow (so I cannot spend it!)...on MOnday I'll deposit it and start working on the payments!...oh, and it seems my car may need a new battery (it refused to start after I dropped cousin off!...luckily her neighbor is a mechanic and he was just arriving at the same time, so he looked at it and, used the jump cables to start my car!)...that could cost me about $60-$75....I have to look on the bright side: while that means less money towards debt, at least I HAVE IT!...if this had happened last year, for example, I would have been in BIG trouble (and would have had to incurr new debt to get it!)...If this had happened before we went to the toy store, I might have backed down on the bike!, but, I'm already committed now (else I lose part of my $$$)...I also have to buy some more medicines for Ale, to finish her treatment...part of that is reimbursable, though, so...no big loss there...
Oh! and the guys from the translation agency warned me that there's "a TON of work coming really soon" and to check whether any of my friends were willing to do translations, as they might have more work than their current pool of translators can handle!..that is sweet news, indeed!!
it was a good day!!!
*****
minor detail I was forgetting! I owe $322 to my friend who helped me with one of the large translations! duh!...I'll go take that out of my stash RIGHT NOW!

I'm getting paid for A LOT of translations today!...woo-hoo!!!...about $2K!!!- that means I have to deposit this on Monday morning and review my payment plan, to see who gets what!! That ticker to the left is going to JUMP forward!!! muaaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhaaaahahahaha!

...other than the company I used to work for, that is...but, I don't consider them a "direct" customer because they gave me translations BECAUSE I worked with them!...
He's bringing the documents by tomorrow! ...great!

ok, the next two translation jobs will go into my tax fund...I got taxes withheld from my previous workplace and, the translation office withholds them from every payment, but, my "main" office doesn't (is not allowed to, by law!-- being an embassy), but, we (local employees) ARE, of course, required to pay taxes on our salaries....I've skipped putting money aside these past 6 months because, honestly, I needed it for debt!...but, I had already decided that, come November, I would start to put aside a bit for the taxes (although, the way things are going, if I manage to pay off all my cc debt this year, I could easily put together what I need just by taking the $$ that would have gone to the cc's next year!-- filing must be done before April 30th!)
so, yeah, I just made my calculation based on the withholding tables/payment tables...it's fairly easy here in ES, as there isn't much you CAN deduct (as a salaried employee, I can discount a maximum of $571 for medical expenses and a maximum of $571 for school tuition....it doesn't matter whether I have 1 child or 12, $571 is the maximum!--it's ridiculous!)...and that's it....for the translations...not much, really...I'd have to look at the definitions, but, it's VERY limited...

the latest translation will bring in about $700 after taxes...this one will most likely be paid either by the end of November or early December!

...the translation money is starting to trickle in!...$189.90 this time...already spent $35 in paying the electricity for this month, and today I'm going to go to the bank at noon to pay $98 still outstanding from last month...and tomorrow I will go to pay the $160 due this month, which will make me officially current....why go today and not wait until tomorrow?
1. the longer I have the money, the greater the temptation to buy "just a little thing"....
2. One less day of interest!

40, really, as I've already spoken to my friend so we can split them!..

woo-hoo!!!

If you said MORE Translations....you're absolutely right!...3 PowerPoint presentations for the training tomorrow!...woo-hoo!...and it's only 9:30pm and I already sent them!!!...that levaes me 1 and a half hours to work on the 4th presentation (due on Friday)...the comments from today's training sessions will have to wait, but, of course, those are lower priority... I still haven't done my wordcount on those presentations, so I still don't know how much $$$ I'm getting for them! LOL!...

these are the "cheap" package ones, but, still....I already billed $23 for tonight's!! ...the ones last time (which will be paid in Nov) totalled $547 AFTER taxes, so...they're not to be despised!!...and, just think: the course goes from oct 8 through Nov 16...that's 30 working days!!!

I feel like doing the happy $$$ dance!

$360 this time! woo-hoo!...I'm going to the bank tomorrow and paying $78 towards the cc and $220 towards the loan...the remaining $62 will go towards the dept store card! ....woo-hoo! TAKE THAT!!

Well, September is gone and October is here already!...

El Salvador celebrates Children's Day on Oct 1st...so, for all of us who are kids at heart: HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

Yeah, it's tomorrow, but we are celebrating today!...I bought Ale 1 present (got a plush bear for free!) and yesterday I took her to the mall, because she's a member of the Club Prensita (this is a children's insert in our local newspaper, which is published 2 times a week)...by showing her card at the newspaper stand at the Children's carnival, we got free tickets to the Fairly Odd Parents show (next week)... each ticket costs $10, and, since her membership was free...of course, the idea was to lure you to the mall, but, we just enjoyed the freebies and then left....Not that the weekend wasn't spendy anyway...Nanny's daughter was hit by a car (luckily, she only had bruises, not even a broken bone!), but, still, I thought it was only fair to give Nanny the week off so she could take care of her daughter...she takes such good care of us when WE are home sick, that it just seemed the right thing to do...so, on Friday we had to buy fast food...$8..OUCH!...this wasn't planned, but niece was supposed to pick Ale up and take her home for lunch, then drop her off at the daycare...but sis and niece went to the eye doctor yesterday and they didn't make it on time, so I had to rush out of the office to go pick up Ale, feed her and then drop her off at the daycare...and I only have 1 hour for lunch!...I was still 15 minutes late!...Oh! and I got a call during lunch that an urgent document had arrived for processing at work!...nearly chocked on my hamburger!!...Oh, and we went to the children's theater festival...we saw The Sand Boy...it was really nice...that was another $6...AND we went to church for a musical...total for that was about $7 (that includes the pupusas which Ale ate, and I still cannot believe that she ate them only 2 hours after having dinner!...she's eating like a termite lately! -which is a nice change from her near-anorexic eating habits, where she will eat if you put the food in front of her, but will totally forget if you don't!...I guess we are in for a MAJOR growth spurt this time!)

Got paid $100 from one of the earlier translations yesterday...I will go make a payment to the cc tomorrow...

or thereabouts...English text tends to be shorter...

I'm getting there!

This is the total (after taxes) that I have pending from my translations...
Of this, $490.70 are from the "special package" which I had set aside as the would-be Disney money...so $1,783.59 would go towards debt...I'm tempted to make it $1,750 or even $1,700 and using the other money ($33 or $83) on some other stuff...I still don't know...I guess it will depend on the overall situation when I actually GET the money!

more translations!!! woo-hoo!!!
keep them coming!!!

This is a "small" one...a contract...should bring in about $30-$40

sooo, today I get to go to someone's house to help them translate a PowerPoint presentation for some high-ranking govt officials...
We'll see how much this earns me in the end...but, right now, I want as much as possible to put towards debt...(and, I need to work on being patient, because I'm not seeing any $$$ until mid-Oct/early Nov!!)...all this could be my Xmas present to myself!!
...who knows, there might even be enough for Ale's bike!

Took a warm bath and slept for about 2 hours in the afternoon....from all the typos I've made in just these 3 rows (which I already corrected) I can see I busted MORE than 3 brain cells!...I think I need more rest, so...BYE!


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I hope they were ones I didn't use much! LOL!...28,198 words in 4 days (and only about 3-4 hours per day! on 2 of those days!!) ...$1,014.66 (after taxes)

I've just landed this translation job that could bring around $1,000....I haven't been given a deadline, but they said preferably this week...I may not be ablo to do it alone, mind you, so that $1,000 might be split, but, still....
ok, back to my dictionaries and glossaries! (I want to make sure I have all I need!)...I'll be using my lunch hour and, also, will leave at 5:00:00pm!...oh, and since Independence Day is Saturday 15, we will get the afternoon off on Friday (guess who'll be working like crazy?!)...
I have a high-interest cc with $2,600 on it...
wish me luck!

I've been doing "happy numbers" - which is what cousin and I call it when we make numbers based on the best-possible scenario (which is, of course, the worst way to prepare for anything!)...and, if I managed to make an average of $400/month with translations, I might actually be able to be debt-free by mid-2009
.... oooooohhhhhh!!!

Dreaming is free!

of course, it'll be at least 30-45 days before I actually GET the money, but...

They were very happy with the job (the end customer), and said they'd probably have some more next week...(this was a new customer for the people that sub-contracted me, so that means THEY're happy, too!--of course, if they hadn't been impressed by the first translation I did for them, they would never have trusted me with a new customer!)

YAWN...I'm going to bed!

LOL!...it's 11:07pm...I sent my last work of the day at 11:04...4 minutes after my self-set cut-off time!...woo-hoo!...only 12 pages to go and, from what I've seen, I can have them ready before noon.

I then have to work on some other stuff, but that is not as urgent...I might even stay with Ale at a friend's b-day party tomorrow (was thinking of just dropping her off if I was still swamped!..now I'm thinking it would be a nice nap!LOL!)...

speaking of which...I gota go ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ now!

Will update total wordcount for the weekend tomorrow!

I went to bed late, and got up early-ish (ok, so 7:30 instead of 8!--it's SATURDAY!)...managed to translate most of the day --minus a 1 hour break to rest/bake some honey bread...yum! Just like grandma's! And I didn't want Ale to feel TOO neglected!...
I'm almost done (in every sense!)...I'm going to go watch TV to soothe my brain a bit...
I still have stuff to translate, but, I will work/send that tomorrow before noon! (they need to have the docs tomorrow at the latest, so they can put them all together --they gave us half and the other half they gave to another translator!--make them look like there was only 1 single source, print it, bind it and present it to some VIP's before a mid-morning meeting on Monday, so....)

Good thing it deals with stuff that I know (and I mean KNOW, as in: this was "our business" 2 jobs back!)

$127!!!... ~$114 after taxes...for 2 hours worth of translations!!...woo-hoo!!

woo-hoo!...I haven`t seen it yet...it´s supposed to be a big one!...If it really is as much as they say it is, I will take Ale either to the Museum for an art lesson ($1) or to the LIon´s club for swimming ($2)-weather permitting...because that gives her something nice to do (as opposed to watching me peck in the computer!) for 2 hours....and I can take my laptop and work while I wait for her! ...

Whatever $$$ I get paid for this one will go towards debt!

well, the guys that have been handing me translations wanted to know if I would agree to work on translating the comments from some feedback forms for a series of trainings they are working on (they're interpreting at the seminars and feel too burned out at the end of the day to tackle this!)...it's easy, and I'm used to this sort of thing (used to do the same thing for the trainings at the Other Place I worked before!)...so, I know the handwriting is sometimes terrible, but I also know how to decipher it...these would be "small" jobs, really, depending on what the people write it might come to $15-$20 per day (after tax), working for 2-3 hours each day (I can do this from 8pm to 11pm, so I don't sacrifice my time with Ale)...and it's just until Sept 28....so, let's do the math...let's say $15 X 18 (working) days (not sure if they will have seminars on Saturdays or not) = $270....not bad!! ...of course, I would most probably get paid towards the end of Oct/ beginning of November, but, hey, as long as they do pay, I don't mind that much!

I just finished sending all the translations I did today (I still have a package to process, but my brain is fried for the day!...$329 worth of translations done today! -- at $0.04/word...you do the math...honestly, right now I just want to go to bed and ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...running out of battery!!!!

Well, I had made plans to spend my morning going to the social security offices to renew Ale's card and to have our "adscription center" (meaning where we are to go for medical care!) to one closer to home....as the one on our records was the one closer to the place we USED to live!....and then going to the bank to make a (small) payment towards my loan....Although I couldn't get started at 8am like I intended (the office opens at 9, not at 8!), I was done well before 10am! Nice surprise!...Instead of roaming the streets and wasting fuel, I came back home to finish Ale's sweater (and log on to SA, of course!)...and, Nanny told me there had been an "urgent" phone call for me...from the translation offices!...sure enough, they have some urgent translations...since they only have print-outs, they're sending them to me right now!-- which means I still get enough time to log on and work a bit on Ale's sweater!....I'm "free" from now until 3pm, when I have to pick up Ale, so I expect there will be plenty of time to do the work! (I'm rather fast!)...

I'm glad, because, if I had been at work, I wouldn't have been able to take these translations (let me see: working on translations during normal business hours, when I'm supposed to be working on my primary job ...er, - NO!)

So, I'm off to finish knitting the pocket to be sewn onto Ale's sweater!!...(small enough that I KNOW I can finish it today!)...

HAPPY LABOR DAY, EVERYBODY!

due for tomorrow am, no less!...it's about 35 pages (though only abou 3,500 words, so not as bad as it seems, but it has a lot of tables (empty, thank God!) and they take a lot of space!

gotta go!

*****
it will bring in $121 (~$110, really, after taxes!)

came yesterday. Payment should be in about 15-30 days....about $60-$65 (haven't done the wordcount yet!)

woo-hoo!!!