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!

(or, at least, you SHOULD know) if, when speaking about replacing a phone burnt by a power surge, you say: I know I could get a cheap phone, but, I NEED one with caller ID because of my creditors...

We were having this conversation about a terrible thunderstorm we had a few days ago and,cousin mentions she needs a new phone because hers got "fried" during the storm... sis and I said we NEED a wireless phone (in addition to our "normal" phone downstairs) so that we do not have to rush downstairs whenever there's a call (one of this days, someone's going to fall down the stairs trying to get to the phone!...that'd definetely be more costly than the $20-$22 wireless phone!)...still, we have that as "a plan" at the moment....

then cousin says: Oh, I know I could buy a regular phone for $5-$7, but, I NEED one with caller ID, so I know not to pick up when it's creditors calling...

sis and I just looked at each other...

It's that time of the year!...the International Children's Theater Festival (FITI) opens this Friday...Woo-hoo!...
I've identified 5 shows we could attend...
the opening piece will be The Sand Boy...the story of a sand boy in love with a mermaid...
Ale's pretty excited, too!

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

Those tickers that we all love so much...I was introduced to them by Divajen!...

just making sure SHE gets the credit!

(they are very helpful and, so cute!)...

notice mine aren't moving?....well, I HAVE been making payments, but, since the calculation was done on pending balances, I have to wait until I get the statements with the new balances to update!... I know I won't see much progress (if any!) until mid-October or November, when 1. most of my translation payments will be due and 2. I get my year-end bonus at work (about $1,000 this year!)...oh, yes, we'll DEFINETELY see some progress then!

I spent $37 stocking up on spices, toilet paper, powdered milk, detergent and other things...it's ok, I won't have to spend as much the next 2 or 3 months!...

Funny thing: they had saffron, at $0.25 for a package that normally costs about $2.50...so, I decided to make a paella...

I bought some shrimp, some clams and some Spanish chorizo....it all cost me about $5, and I'll add some leftover chicken....guess WHAT I forgot??...THE RICE!!!...how do you make paella without rice? ...well, you really can't!...the good thing is I still had 1lb in my cupboard...the bad thing is I don't think that'll be enough!... I'll see if the little corner store is open tomorrow morning....I really don't want to go all the way back to the grocery store for a bag of rice!...

well, one of our toy customers is having a special sale (open only to employees and suppliers!)...so, I bought spices...pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, cinammon powder, vanilla extract, and other stuff... I really stocked up!...some of this stuff sells for $3.00 each, and I got it at $0.25-$0.50 each!...yay!...we are also stocking up on toilet paper, detergent and tooth paste today!...
they do this sort of thing about once or twice a year...we like to take advantage of it!

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

We already got a pre-order for about $2,250....they are still making their final-final list of children, so the number may go up or down (they give toys to the employee's children 0-12, so if a child turns 13, s/he exits the list...newborns are added and, of course, if employees have left/been hired, there's changes in the numbers....)
We should be getting the final list on Tuesday, at the latest!

well, our office does...and guess who's been charged with the shopping!!

...they already gave me a list!
2 printers
1 "office set" (desk, return, chair + filing cabinet)
1 conference room
4-6 chairs....

think that's going to do it??...we'll see!..
problem is,I'm used to getting top value for my $$$$, so I may end up spending a lot less!!
(I'd love to have this be a problem in my personal finances...having surplus $$$, that is!)

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!