Moments of Fame
The Carnival of Personal Development is live at Andy Parkinson’s World, where Funny’s rumination about whether to take the proffered Shared Work unemployment benefit appears. And ahah! You’ll recall that I wondered where the essay on loving what you do for a living appeared: it was Gary Chester’s guest post at Bargaineering! At the Barefoot Badger, Jill drops, almost in passing, the fairly profound observation that certain glossy magazines manipulate consumers into buying unnecessarily because of the subtle negative effect they have on one’s self-image. Among the PF blogging set, not an awful lot of new stuff appears in this carnival: a lot of folks are submitting double-submitting posts. DepositAccounts.com generated a little commentary with a question about what to do with the almost laughable stimulus tax cut,or whatever it is. Retire Happy, at My Retirement Blog, reports that a Warren Buffett rule of thumb suggests it’s time to buy stocks; that would be nice if you had any cash left to buy with.
FMF has posted the Carnival of Personal Finance at Free Money Finance. Here’s an interesting article by Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade about how and why the practice of charging points for mortgage origination came into being; lots of copy here, but it’s pretty interesting and gives some serious insight into the mortgage lending business. Something worth watching is the lead given at InsureBlog to the effect that some part of the stimulus plan will require employers to underwrite a portion of the staggering cost of COBRA—the slant is pretty far to the right, and so it’s hard to see around the acid rhetoric, but if you’re about to be laid off you would be well advised to learn more about this. My Family’s Money has an entertaining post comparing the costs of commuting by car, by bus, and by bicycle…MFM must not live in Arizona; otherwise he wouldn’t have survived long enough to make the calculation. 
And those of us who expect to see rampant inflation in the wake of the stimulus package will appreciate Go to Retirement’s essay on Inflation and Retirement.
Green Panda Treehouse has posted the Festival of Frugality, which this week includes Funny’s post on building a “grocery pool.” Mary at Simply Forties hit the Editor’s Picks with a very clever idea for turning old TP rolls into seed starter pots. Check out Prime Time Money’s how-to on building a nifty bookcase. At My Dollar Plan, Madison has generated some interesting commentary around the question of whether her family should downsize. M is for Money lists 50 ways to save on pet expenses, a topic of perennial interest in these parts. This is a large and diverse festival; be sure to visit, also to enjoy Green Panda’s great Dr. House theme.
The Make It from Scratch Carnival is online at Tim Appleton’s Applehead. Funny’s recipe for grilled, marinated pork tenderloin appears here, but speaking of pork loin, check out HowToMe’s description of how she makes not one but two quick meals of a single loin roast. At Our Red House, Kate has an interesting approach to sauteeing some crispy potatoes—notice that she lightly microwaves the cut-up taters first. And hot dog! Check out the instructions for how to make crêpe-paper flowers at FineCraftGuild.com—they look just like the expensive variety you sometimes find in Mexican import stores.
Funny will host the Festival of Frugality next week. I’m looking forward to reading everyone’s posts! Be sure to send them in by the deadline.
Update: The Penny Daily has posted the Money Hacks Carnival, where Funny’s report on grubstaking the food pool appears. Sorry, Penny — your site’s comment software won’t let me in, so I can’t say thanks to you there! Hmm…here’s a nice little tip from Christian Personal Finance: did you know you can get tax deductions for certain aspects of volunteer work? Wish I’d known about that when I was driving to choir three times a week! The Greenest Dollar reports on people converting cabooses into homes; I suppose it’s cute, but having grown up in one of the grimmest parts of the world, where people are forced to live in such accommodations not out of “green” impulses but because it’s the best shelter around, I find it depressing. Free from Broke posts a nice summary of the benefits of the American Recovery Reinvestment Act for individual citizens. In that department, Bankling reviews the government’s new Recover.gov site. And speaking of software that’s not working, neither is mine…so it’s over and out!
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10 Responses to “Moments of Fame”
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Haha. I think you may be right. Riding my bike in 110+ heat is not something that I think I would want to do, especially 20+ miles a day. The hottest I think I have ever ridden is in the mid to upper 80s (since I ride in the morning and late afternoon).
It does sound like a challenge that might be fun to try once or twice – on condition that I have plenty of water and an emergency come-pick-me-up-in-an-air-conditioned-car-immediately button I could press at a moments notice!
Yes. In these parts, too, you share the road with homicidal drivers.
Thanks so much for the mention!
Thank you for the compliment! You are making my day…
Yes, there are many flowers in my life.
We are happy that you felt our recent post was an enjoyable one
Thank you for the kind mention.
Thanks for the mention! I enjoyed reading the article you submitted.
I’m sorry that you couldn’t comment on our post. Did it give you an error? I’m not exactly sure how to fix it since I just use whatever Blogger’s default is.
Thanks for the mention! My little tomato seeds sprouted in their toilet paper roll pots yesterday. I’m so proud. Spring must be nearly here.
Awesome, SimplyForties! It’s already getting too warm here to plant tomatoes. Think I’m going to plant some butternut squash & some cantaloupe seeds, if I can figure out a place for them to live.
Thanks for the link, pets are one of my favorite topics! If you plant the squash and cantaloupes make sure they have tons of space, they’re space hogs and will overrun their neighbors. Mine took over the garden and never produced!
Yah, I gathered that. On Dave’s Garden, a few of the gardening gurus indicate they’ve been able to grow them in pots (really????); photos there show some mighty kudzu-like critters! Well, I’m going to try putting them in a place where they can spread out over the minus-3 crushed granite, which should allow them to do their vine thing without suffocating their neighbors. If it doesn’t work, nothing ventured & nothing gained. Try googling butternut squash dave’s garden for a cool photo of a vine draping over a stone trellis.