401K

I diversified my portfolio today...LOL. What? Yeah, that's what I did, I guess. I made an appointment with the investment advisor who oversees our 401K accounts at work to change my name on my account. I don't know ANYTHING about investing or the likes. So anyways, I get there and he greets me and we sit down and do the paperwork for the name change and then he asks if I'd like to take a look at my "portfolio". To me a portfolio is a folder. I knew what he was getting at though. I thought, "why not?" I had time and was interested to see what he had for me. Well he pulled out my current plan and showed me the growth (which was slow but steady) and said this is okay, blah blah blah. THEN, he pulled out the big guns. He showed me 5 different options for investing my money (please note that these are not huge investments...it's 5% of each paycheck). My jaw dropped to the floor when he showed me where I COULD have been had I chosen any one of these other 5 options in the beginning. Well why didn't he tell me that IN THE BEGINNING? I know why. Because in the beginning I didn't have a clue about any of this stuff and the thought of losing a penny one year to gain 5 over the next two just didn't sink in. I didn't want to take any chances, so I guess I must have told him to stick my money in the "conservative" places. Well that was dumb. He assured me that it was okay since I still have almost 40 years until I can even use the money. HA! Thanks for the assurance. BUT, we did get the funds moved around into a tad more risky options and we'll see how that goes. It appeared that even when the riskies (is that a word?) had losses, they were temporary (2-3 years in a row) and more than recovered in following years to produce bigger and better gains. Even still, I won't be able to retire when I'm 35. Shoot. But I can say I diversified my portfolio, and that sounds impressive.

Blog Help?!

I'm pretty good with computers, meaning I know how to use them. However, I don't understand the language of computers. The formulas and such. I'm trying to put a cute little clock on my blog (like Karen's at www.karens2cents.blogspot.com) and I'm having a terrible time. I tried to look in Blogger help, but it didn't. I think I have the general idea of what has to happen...somehow I have to post a link to the clock in the sidebar, but that's all I know. When I try to do that and go into the innards of my blog, I find a bunch of gobbledy goop like this ^:al fjw @ bb`` } / ahbbe lp've ~ and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyone know where I can find good instructions? Preferably in plain old English?

Here's my new "word cloud". It's kind of fun to update this once in a while to see what new words pop in. You should try it...go to www.snapshirts.com and click on "custom". It's pretty simple. Just fill in the little bits of information and it'll create your word cloud. Once complete snapshirts will e-mail it to you so you can save it, etc. Pretty neat!

Subway

I had Subway for lunch today. Big deal right? Well today I did something that I have never done before. No, I didn't order something different. I ordered the same old thing (turkey wrap, american cheese, lettuce, extra pickles, salt/pepper, mayo). Wondering what I did? I ate at Subway all alone. I have never eaten at a place by myself! I'm almost embarssed to say that, but usually if I don't pack a lunch to take to work I go somewhere and pick something up and either take it back to work and eat there or I sit in my car and eat. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that wouldn't sit down at a "restaurant" and eat by themselves. What is wrong with us? It was so nice sitting there, really. I needed a break from work so I didn't want to go back to the office and it was kind of a yucky day so I didn't want to sit in my car. So I took the plunge. I ordered my sandwich and plopped down in a booth all by myself! It really helped that there were 3 other people in the place that were alone. It was actually kind of relaxing. I was able to just sit there and clear my head and eat my lunch. I made a to-do list for the weekend and stared off into nowhere land for a bit. It was nice not to have to ward off phone calls when eating at the office or even having to try and hold a conversation with someone had there been someone eating with me. Fast food type restaurants are one thing...I'm not sure if I could go to the Olive Garden and order up a table for 1. Maybe that'll be a personal challenge of mine. So what do you think? Do you eat in alone at restaurants?

Back to School

Today was "Signing Day" at Putnam Heights Elementary School. Signing Day is the 1st day of classes for junior high and high school students, but elementary students go to school to spend about 45 mins. or so checking in, filling out paperwork, dropping off supplies, chatting with the teacher, and getting pictures taken. I don't remember this day when I was in elementary school. I remember getting to school on the first day and going to the classrooms for whichever grade and searching for my name on a list to see which class I was in. How terrifying! Not knowing who was in my class? How could they? ;)

Two things I like about Signing Day: 1. I get to be there when Cait gets her picture taken to make sure her hair isn't sticking up and that she doesn't have gum in her mouth. I also get to see the picture right then and there, and if it's not acceptable they'll retake it immediately. Cool huh? 2. I get to go with to scope out her teacher and her new classroom and to make sure everything is neatly organzied in her desk and she's ready to roll the next day.

This year was easy with 2. above. She has the same teacher as last year! A different classroom though. Two years ago Mrs. Johnson was a 5th grade teacher, and last year she moved to 4th grade and was Cait's teacher. This year she moved back to 5th grade and took her entire class with her! Kind of neat, but I think Cait would have liked some variety. She likes Mrs. Johnson though so it will be okay.

5th grade already? Smokes! I was doing Caitlin's hair (had to be purty for pictures) and I could barely brush it with her standing in front of me--she's too tall. :(

My nephew started kindergarten today--wow! I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm pretty sure he did okay. This a.m. his mom sent an e-mail and said he was upset because he didn't get to ride the bus home! Crazy kid. Who wants to ride the bus?

Anyways...good luck to all of the back to schoolers out there, young and old alike.