My plan for today was to work along with "my" carpenter constructing another built-in bookcase* but that plan fell apart when the carpenter phoned to reschedule. So I just sort of hodge-podged the day.

After my early morning coffee and post writing**, I walked back to our "barnyard" and found raccoon number 3 waiting for me in my live trap. (I am on a roll, here.) So it was another drive-and-hike raccoon release*** for me before I could officially start my day. But I will never complain about a hike.****

9:30am to 12:30pm This seemed like a good day for it, so I put in 2 hours of emptying stored boxes***** and filling up book and display shelves. That plus some mundane chores (like doing the cat boxes) got me to lunch.

12:30pm to 1:30pm Had another enjoyable lunch and DVD lecture on ancient civilizations.

1:30pm to 6:30pm Got totally immersed in stocks****** and household financial paperwork for the rest of the afternoon.

6:30pm until... A leisurely drink, a nice dinner at home, and a big time-chunk of pc strategy gaming******* wrapped up the day for me.

My plan for the day was to set up our new art/what-all booth at a local indoor antiques mart, do some stock searching, and relocate another trapped raccoon. Things went even better than I planned.

After my early morning blog post writing*, I went to check my raccoon trap at our barnyard -- and found another "customer" to relocate!** So the next thing I did was to drive and hike in to a good spot where I released the pesky critter before really getting my day started.

10:00am to 12:00noon I did the initial setting up of a 3-by-5 against-the-wall booth that we have started renting at the local indoor antique mart. We have SOOO much art and other stuff that we can find no place for*** that we are going to see if we can sell some off. And -- unbelievable as it may seem -- I sold 2 small pottery art pieces for $155 while I was still setting up. Let's hope that is a good sign of things to come.

12:00noon to 4:30pm After my usual "lunch and a DVD lecture", I spent the afternoon updating my stock records and researching potential new stocks to add to my portfolio.**** Except now it is more of a game instead of a chore.***** And that is a very good thing.

4:30pm until... I ran out of steam early, so -- being Sunday and all -- I hung up my "stockering" hat and spent the rest of the evening watching movies.

My plan for today was to tag along with my wife to an offsite church group activity at Virginia Safari Park. But I did not expect to turn into a kid again or have so much fun!

We carpooled about 100 miles from the church assembly point to this Virginia Safari Park, a place I had never heard of. It turned out to be the kind of wildlife attraction where you drive through a huge park-like area where exotic animals from around the world roam free and come close to your vehicle. But instead of driving in our own vehicles, our group program included riding through in a large, open, tractor-pulled wagon that made this even more fun.

As we boarded the wagon after an ostrich-gawking picnic lunch, the driver-guide gave each of us a large plastic bucket full of animal kibble. Every so often, he would stop the wagon along the trail and the animals would converge on us to be fed, close and personal, and essentially by hand. I loved it!

You name it, we fed it. Food bucket snatching camels, pot-bellied pigs, huge-headed Scotch Highland cattle, super tame buffalo, all kinds of gazelles and antelopes, llamas, deer and elk, and more. All coming right up to the wagon and sticking their heads in over the transoms for the food.

The bunch of little kids in our group got me acting like a little kid too. Wanting to be sure I got to feed everything. Wanting to pet everything. Keeping the camels from stealing our buckets. Pouring kibble onto the gigantic tongues of begging buffalos. Ooohing and aaahing over everything. It was great.

After the wagon ride, my wife and I roamed all over the pedestrian zoo-like part of the park to see many more exotic creatures and birds as they "did their thing" in various enclosures. And some of those animals were super-unusual australian and south asian species I had never ever heard of before. So that was great, too.

The trip to this place took practically all day, but it was sure worth it to me. On the way home, we errand-bundled building-supply and grocery stops. And topped it all off with a nice dinner out.

What a nice break.

My plan for the day was to spend the day packing up stuff* at our now-vacant previous home while my old and blind doggie, Little Bit, had surgery performed to remove a massive mammary growth. All went as planned. All went well.

Again, I had to skip a coffee-and-blogging start to my morning** so I could get Little Bit to the vet by 8:00 am -- which I did. Then back I went to our old house to keep working at getting the heck out of it.

It might seem strange for me to take my dog to a vet that is located over 100 miles from my present home, but it actually often ends up being more time efficient for me to do things like vet trips, bank stops and DMV visits when I am already going to be doing the 100-mile trip anyway.***

By 2:30pm, I had done all the packing I could stand doing, my truck was loaded and I was ready to get the heck out of Dodge. Got to the vet by 3pm, and there was Little Bit with a successful surgery under her belt (no pun intended).

With my doggie snuggled up in one of her most favorite places in the world (my pickup's passenger seat), we were off and running. Two-and-a-half hours and 102 miles later, we were home. Another half-hour and my truck was emptied out and I had had it for the day.

After that, it is all a blur but I would not be surprised if I wrapped up my day with a big Chivas Regal and an extended round of Pacific War!****

My plan for the day was to drive over to our now-vacant previous home (102 miles each way), do some caretaking there, load up my pickup* with yet another load of boxed up stuff**, and do a nice hike*** at nearby Shenandoah Virginia State Park. It all worked out.

8:00am to 1:30pm
I skipped my usual early morning coffee-and-blog-writing**** routine to get an early start on my drive. (It takes me a long time to get ready to go.) So I arrived at our previous home around noon, just in time for lunch.

After setting up for my overnight stay (because staying at a vacant house is just like camping!), I had a sandwich lunch while viewing the lecture on The Egyptian New Kingdom in my Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations DVD course.

1:30pm to 5:30pm
Drove over to Shenandoah Virginia State Park and piggybacked Overlook Trail and Allen's Mountain Trail (up and down the mountain) to trailwalk some 4 miles. Great stuff.

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Got a couple of hours packing in and then goofed off the rest of the night.

7:30pm until...
Cooked up dinner, ate it and then caught up my Pacific War fantasy combat journal*****, all while watching the movie Gettysburg.

My plan for the day was to focus mostly on doing stock research* and working on setting up my part-time hiking blog business.** That got changed by a raccoon, a newspaper flyer and a brochure in the mail. But it was all good in the end.

Today, I did my early morning coffee routine at the computer while I edited, typed up and posted my blog article Cashback Cards ARE Worth the Effort. Then off to the barnyard -- where we found our first trapped raccoon.***

8:00am to 12:00 noon
-- Drove and hiked into a secluded wooded area with fresh water access, and released the raccoon. It trotted off about 20 feet, went behind a tree, and then stood there on its haunches looking at me. (Yes, you are welcome for your life, raccoon.)
-- Back at home, I did some stock portfolio monitoring**** and it was time for lunch.

12:00 noon to 1:30pm
-- Another enjoyable sandwich lunch eaten in front of the TV watching a DVD lecture in the Great Courses' Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations.

1:30pm to 6:30pm
-- A day or two ago, a newspaper flyer from Ace Hardware sold us on picking up a modest above-ground pool there at a great discounted price*****. This afternoon, we set it up. (1000 gallons of water is a lot of water.)
-- Having some leftover time and energy, I knocked off a few boxes off our monstrous storage pile.****** It's a start and it felt good.

6:30pm until...
-- Having hardly made a dent on my June 30-deadlined $5000 spending spree*******, I opened today's mail to find an offer I could not resist from the Great Courses company. Seventy percent off on anything and everything in their catalog, including all already discounted courses on sale. So I spent an hour or so deciding what to buy and how to get the most bang for my buck, and then I picked up the phone and ordered TEN courses at a total cost of $795 including taxes and shipping. (List price on the courses was well above $3,000.) Take that, spending spree.
-- And then I played a little Pacific War********...

My plan for today was to spend most of my task time "stockering": reviewing quarterly earnings reports on my portfolio companies* and researching new investments to make.** Plus doing a little more start-up planning for my TrailWalkers Club part-time business***. And I accomplished all that.

Today was also the day we trapped a big raccoon we suspect is the raider that killed 2 of my wife's chickens last week!****

I launched my day with an early round of blog writing, getting down 200 more words***** on my newest opus, Cashback Cards ARE Worth the Effort, while enjoying a cup of my free gourmet coffee.******

8:00am to 12:00 noon
-- barnyard critter detail and house chores
-- pinned down all the regulatory hoops I will have to jump through to start up TrailWalkers Club (county, state and fed -- oh, my!)

12:00 noon to 1:30pm
-- lunch and another Great Courses DVD lecture from Prehistoric Man and the First Civilizations.
-- welcomed my wife home from her latest business trip.

1:30pm to 6:30pm
-- researched stocks, plowed through several quarterly earnings reports, and set up some new buys and some possible profit-making sales.

6:30pm to ...
-- set out our new and BIGGER live trap at the barnyard.
-- after dinner, played a long session of Pacific War******.

and a trapped raccoon!
-- the trap worked and the next morning we found a big raccoon in the trap!

My plan for today was to go hiking* in the morning (before the rains came) and hunker down to do paperwork in the afternoon. And so I did. Walked a long, hard new trail and swept a bunch of paper out of my inbaskets.

I am now back to my early am routine of good coffee** and blog post writing.*** So I did some 200 words on my new blog article "Cashback Cards ARE Worth The Effort", had breakfast and got ready to go hiking.

8:00am to 1:30pm
-- With my wife Kathy on a business trip, I took care of her barnyard (geese, bunnies, chickens) for her.
-- Took a nice drive to Walnut Creek Park for my hike.
-- Since I had enough energy and time, I walked the longest trail in the Park (about 4 miles) for a darn good workout, seeing as this Wilkins Way Trail was designed for trail biking and that made it challenging in places for on-foot hikers. But what the heck!
-- Back at home, I had lunch while viewing The Origins of States and Civilizations, lecture #19 in the Prehistory and First Civilizations DVD course I am currently "attending."

1:30pm to 7:30pm
-- Dove into my paperwork pile and paid bills, updated stock records,**** fixed admin problems and placed orders for miscellaneous house stuff.
-- Wrapped my tasks time block***** with 45 minutes of new-planting watering for my wife.

7:30pm to ...
-- Had dinner and played Pacific War****** until I got too sleepy to stay awake.
-- NICE DAY!