By the numbers

This week, I need to:

1. Look at houses
   
2. Call US Bank about rates
   
3. Call this other guy to mow my lawn
   
4. Send a check for the New Horizons dinner
   
5. Get a hotel for New Horizons
   
6. Apply to jobs from the Sunday classifieds
   
7. Do laundry
   
8. Make Phoebe (and possibly other people) a voodoo doll
   
9. Make the TST binding
   
10. Create the Petra outline
    
11. Set up a personal IRA

I looked at an apartment in Toledo on Friday. It looked a bit iffy on the outside, but the inside was perfectly nice, clean and structurally sound, and cheap. Cheap is good. I also met with my Toledo realtor, whom I believe I shall call China for reasons best known to my convoluted brain, who listened to my criteria and gave me 43 listings to consider and drove me around Toledo. As a result, I now have the spindly beginnings of a mental map of Toledo. As a mental map is essential to my psychological well-being--I discovered in Baltimore that I'm not comfortable without an idea of where I am in the city and how roads connect--it was worth the time. I will still probably invest in a Toledo roadmap. Over the weekend Eric and I narrowed the list to nine "can't find anything wrong with them" choices and several "not very much wrong with them" choices. We're going to see the nine on Thursday.

I have to call US Bank about mortgage rates and terms. Also China's company (which, she told me, is the largest independent company in Toledo, or some such statistic--400 agents alone) is affiliated with Wells Fargo and she suggested it wouldn't hurt for me to talk with their local finance person while I'm up there, so I should give them a call too.

I have given up harassing Shawnscape, mostly because it's too much effort when I know it will get me nothing but lost time, but The Agent called today and said, "Your buyers are really anxious to get into your house. They keep driving by. But they're concerned about how long the grass is getting." I told him about the problem with Shawnscape and said that I'd be calling someone else this week--I intended to anyway, but now I've got an obligation. After all, my buyers didn't ask for anything else to be done. The Agent suggested a name, so I'll try them and if that doesn't work I'll pick someone from the phone book.

I brought the Sunday Blade classifieds home with me, though I didn't look at them until very late last night because after leaving Toledo I went to Jen's Pampered Chef party. I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out that the PC consultant (consultant?) made a (very, very yummy) dish using various PC implements, distributed door prizes (I got one for coming from Toledo and one for having my name pulled out of a family-sized professional pot that the consultant had placed ice in to show us how quickly it melted), and took orders. I contemplated getting things but eventually tamed my inner spendthrift. I wouldn't want to spend money so much if I hadn't told myself I wouldn't.

Phoebe (and possibly other people) gets a voodoo doll because before I left Thursday night, I sent an e-mail to some project leaders asking for information for a project I'm on. And, since I knew that only one or two would actually answer me, I offered a prize: homemade cookies or a handmade voodoo doll to everyone who replied before the end of Tuesday. So far Phoebe's been the only one.

I finally finished the quilting and signing and re-bordering of TST. Now it needs binding made and sewn in, and I will--after more than a year--be finished with it. Good grief. I also want to make a baby quilt for my cousin's baby (expected in May) by Christmas so that I can bring it when I fly there for the holidays, but at this rate I may not get to it. Next year I'm making one for my Korean grandma to take with me in April and WUALF (if I don't for Jaime's baby) and a Penrose tile and maybe one other, depending.

The Petra outline is still in card form, but they've been cut and strewn across my living room rug and arranged some, but they need more arranging and then transcribing onto the computer before I back up my files before the move. I suppose I also need to reserve a U-Haul van, but I think this is probably enough for one week.

And since I'm moving, I shall need a place to put my 401k money. I was pleased to find that I have a decent amount--I mean, not a lot for retirement generally, but I'm twenty-five and I've only been on the 401k plan for a little over two years, so considering that it's not bad, I think. My company's new 401k matching program is less generous than the old--1% matching rather than 3% regardless--and I asked for my old money to wait to be designated, so I need a personal IRA for that anyway. I just have no idea how to do it. Vanguard has an online sign-up, but I'm a little afraid of it, so I think I'd better go the phone route, even though I hate talking to people I don't know on the phone.

All in all, a busy week. The next four weeks will be. Not that I'm counting or anything.