Got my paycheck on Thursday night. Its been a little better lately than whats it was for a long time. It just depends on how much they cut my hours from week to week.

I haven't been able to save much of anything lately. Been focusing on keeping my head above water and all the basic stuff. After allowing for all my bills, and taking out my needed spending money, I was able to put $50 towards the extra Principal of my mortgage (thats become a habit now), put $10 toward my 2010 IRA, $10 to E-fund, and $10 to Travel Fund. That left me with $90 extra that I just left in checking to continue replenishing my cusion in there.

I also had a check for $10 from MySurvey that I deposited to go into my travel Fund.

Good news for the 4th of July work schedule is that I have fairly close to my regular hours plus I'll get holiday pay so that means I'll have a pretty good check coming up.

I'm surviving OK without TV. I haven't had cable in a long while and just didn't want to get the digital tv box, so now I can't watch TV at all. I really don't mind too much. I did notice though that I'm spending more time online. I still watch a good bit of DVD or VHS movies. I have my own collection plus I get them from the Library.

Decided to get a service plan added to my gas bill that covers any inside repairs to my gas or electric lines. I normally
have always felt these kinds of plans were a waste of money and refused to buy
into them. But weighing the pros and cons I think that right now its a good investment. The plan is going to be $4.95 a month. That doesn't seem too outrageous. And my home is an older home
that who knows when something will break.
But the main reason I signed up was cause the city is going to completely
re-do my street. They are paying for it entirely from some kind of grant. But I was thinking that if they mess up and make some kind of mistake it could damage something inside my home that they might not want to fix. So this will help give me some peace of mind JUST IN CASE.
Hopefully I made a smart decision. Even if I didn't I don't think the cost will kill me, and I can cancel it anytime with 30 day notice.

Did anyone else have problems with this website the last couple of days? It set my virus scanner off with a trojan virus. Then the next day there were no blogs to read. I was surprised when I got on today and it looks like nothing had happened.

Anyways, today is payday. Its a real good one for a change. I need it.
Because I had been on vacation I'll actually get paid a full 40 hours per week instead of the 36 or 38 hours I've been working lately. Now if only I could figure out how to take vacation permanently.
I'll also get an extra day of pay because Of memorial day. And we got a bonus of
$206.
I'm taking out my usual spending money and putting $50 towards the extra Principal of my house payment. The rest is all going into my checking. It will help build up the cusion plus I have dental work coming in the near future that is kind of expensive.

Last entry for the vacation pictures of Costa Rica. I'm glad some of you enjoyed seeing them and I enjoyed showing them.

This is just a view of the forest from the canopy tour.




There were lots of leaf cutter ants and the sign points them out cause they bite.


Here is the hotel I stayed at. Its not a fancy hotel but it was very comfortable, had internet access and cable TV and was very reasonably priced.


Here's just a typical view of a street in San Jose. You can see what the official taxis look like, and the misty mountains in the background.


This is a nice view out in the countryside. There were lots of farms and plantations. You can tell just by looking at it how fertile the soil must be.


Last but not least. This was one of my favorites. Very poisonous but cute. These were the frogs from the movie Apocalypco that they made poison darts out of.

Hope I didn't bore anyone with the pictures. I took an aweful lot(Over 600). Just sharing some random ones that might be of interest to some of you.

Nothing new financially except going back to work today. Thats tough after over 2 weeks off.



Don't know what this bird was but I thought he was cute.


This is the National Theatre. Inside it has a beautiful italian design


This one gives you a general idea of inside the National Theatre.


One of the Canopy Zip Lines.

Here are some more Costa Rica pictures.
Thanks to everyone who took a look yesterday and for the comments.





Howler Monkey.



Oxcarts were what they first used to transport coffee so they are a very important symbol in Costa Rica.


This water slide was at the vulcanic hot springs. I thought it was shallow so I almost drowned when I flew out of there into 9 feet deep water. I was fine but a girl had to pull me to shallower water.


A picture of Arenal Vulcano from the hot springs.




The gardens at the hot springs.

Here are a few pictures from my vacation in Costa Rica.
These first pics were from a boat ride
on a river there. I think its called Sarapiqua river.
The third pic is of the "Jesus Christ" lizard that can run across the water. Unfortunately I didn't see them do that.
I'll post some more pics over the next couple of days if no one minds.

I've been on vacation for almost 2 weeks now. It has gone by fast but it also feels like I've been off forever. I haven't had a chance to read very many blogs.

Did my camping trip which went pretty well. The highlight was an 18 mile canoe trip on the mohican river. Then went on my trip to Costa Rica (FINALLY).
Costa Rica is beautiful for the most part. There are a lot of poor sections with trash and stuff laying around. And its difficult for those of us that can't speak Spanish. But overall its a great place to visit. It kind of grows on you the longer you are there too.
I'm going to try to put up a couple of my pictures on here. The canopy zip lines were one of my favorite things. I stayed in San Jose and just took day trips to the various activities I wanted to do. If I get to return there I would spend part of the time in Monteverde which is more out the in countryside.

On my payday update I just got my check from last week yesterday. I deposited the entire thing. I pretty much am using the entire check for my usual expenses and
replacing the cusion in my checking account. My cusion has taken a huge beating as of late and it will take me awhile to get back on track. But I'm not in any debt or anything so thats a good thing. I will also use $50 as usual from that check to go into paying extra on my mortgage. So I'm doing ok. Just have to
slow down now on the spending, be a little more frugal, and start working a little harder on my goals.
It will take me a couple of months to get in what I consider good financial shape.

I did some MySurvey surveys today and redeemed points for $10. I'll put that into my vacation fund. I've got several places I want to go.
Vacation planning is kind of a side goal and hobby for me.