...and I have a week off next week, so expect to either see this space be a little empty, or entries to be published a little later in the day than normally, or something rather long and verbose will appear.

I don't know yet what the blog's condition will be, but I do know what today's entry will be about and I suppose it's fitting that it's payday

Before I go on, I have one more thing to say: I watched "Hit Me Baby (One More Time)" on NBC last night. The only reason I watched it is because Greg Kihn (of "The Breakup Song" fame) was on with his band, which includes a couple of the old members and his lookalike-from-the-80s son Ry. The only reason I knew that they were going to be on the show was because I listen to Greg Kihn every morning on KFOX 98.5 here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I have done so off and on for the last 13 years he's been on. I love classic rock.

They lost. The website voting thinks they should have won. The audience reaction to both of his songs indicates that he should have won. But the audience voting shows that Thelma Houston won. Something is not right with this. Greg Kihn totally rocked. I even let the DDs stay up to watch because they're fans of the radio show too.

Ah well... Next week they'll state that the audience at home disagreed with the people there. I guess folks weren't impressed with the once svelte (thanks to alcohol and cocaine) Kihn being overweight and showing his age - but boy, could he *ROCK*.

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1. If someone gave you $100 right now, how would you spend it and why? (No catches are involved; you can spend the money anywhere and in any way you want.) Would you make a bunch of small purchases or use the money for one big item?

Ooo. I actually just had this happen recently because I received my birthday check from my parents early this year. And it's more than $100, but I'm not saying how much more. I think I'm going to save it for a trip I plan on taking soon.

Of course, if I didn't have the trip in question going on, then I don't know what I'd spend the money on. I'd probably just squirrel it away and either pay bills with it or spend it on movies tickets for the family for various things that we want to see.

2. Do you consider yourself financially savvy? Do you have a good handle on your own financial status? Are you the person who primarily keeps track of your (or your family's) finances? Do you use a computer program or balance your checkbook by hand?

I'm a finance major, and a business analyst by trade, I'd better be financially savvy. I'm one of those people that doesn't balance her checkbook but once every six months, and is always perfectly on target. And I do it by hand.

I manage all my own finances, DH manages those of the family/household in general using his nifty little Quicken program (or whatever he's using these days). Personally, I started to do that, but it just wasn't going to work for me, so I went back to doing it by hand (when I bother to do it at all)

3. Do you ever play the lottery? Why/why not? Do you think that it would completely change your life, or would you try to continue with the way you'd been living before? What types of lottery games do you play, and how often?

We love the lottery. Totally and completely love it. But we only play it when it gets over $40-50 million dollars. Now the California lottery is joining some mega millions deal with other states, the odds are going to be even more astronomical. Heee. I always do better when the odds are totally against me.

Now that I've brought that up, I can say that should I win (after getting hit by two buses, and three airplanes falling out of the sky right on top of me *and* getting hit 4 times by lightning and surviving all of that perfectly intact), I wouldn't change a thing.

Yup. I'd still go to work, and I'd still go work out. I wouldn't leave my job until someone truly pisses me off, and then I'd ask to work part time or to buy out their position in the company. I don't think that I'd change one thing about the way I live because the presence of too much money in one's life can invite trouble. So I'd rather live in the anonymous way that I do rather than announce that I'm the half billion dollar jackpot winner because I have a nice little lifestyle and it's happy and comfortable and perfect for me and DH and the kids.

Oh, I might get another dog. And a new car. Perhaps a Subaru Forester, but that's about it.

4. Are you a coupon cutter and bargain hunter, or is money no object to you? Do you tend to do things yourself to save money or pay someone else to do them? Or are you somewhere in-between?

Absolutely I'm a coupon cutter. Just a few minutes with the Sunday paper and some online cruising, and you can cut so much out of the grocery budget. I don't see it as being miserly, but being intelligent. After all, I have to live on something eventually when I get old and want to retire, right? And every penny counts.

There are some things that we do ourselves rather than hire out for them - cleaning the house, for one, but that's more a trust issue on my part rather than a money issue, but money definitely figures into it all.

5. What's the largest amount of money that you've ever held in your hands?

In a cashier's check, or in actual cash? To be honest, I'd rather not say.