10 Things from This Week

It's been a busy week!

1. We are a few weeks out from Thanksgiving but many of our neighbors have already decorated for Christmas (see photo above).
2. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day.  While there are many "freebies" available for veterans, hubby and I usually only go to the free Veteran's buffet at the Southpoint Casino.  We also like following a couple we know on Facebook, who are both veterans, get as many freebies as possible--they start in the early morning and post each stop they make clear up until evening...it's fun to see their progress on their annual freebie quest!
3. My meeting last week went great!  I was a bit worried because my boss said "we need to talk" after the meeting and I had no idea what he wanted to talk about (I get literally zero feedback or even an email/call from him for a month or longer so I just do my thing and figure if the Board doesn't like what I am doing, someone will tell me).  He started with "you are doing an amazing job" and ended with asking if I would pick up a multi-year project that may become a model for the entire state.  Of course I said yes because I like big challenges...now I am researching as quickly as possible so I will have some baseline of knowledge when I ramp up work on this.
4. My No Spend November challenge is going great.  I've never had a credit card balance so low, a third of the way through the month.  I think I've spent less than $20 on random things so far this week, and while I always pay if hubby and I go out to lunch or hit up Costco, he is very supportive of my challenge and has picked up everything so far this month.  So far we have skipped major shopping at Costco or Sam's Club, and for the couple of times we have go out to lunch this month, we have opted for the least inexpensive places we know of.
5. If you live in a place prone to natural or other disasters and take your preparedness seriously, here is a good video on preparedness mistakes a YouTuber made when it came to surviving Hurricane Helene.  I learned quite a few things from her video!
6. Our Thanksgiving celebration this year will be our usual low-key holiday dinner with just the hubby and I and maybe his cousin if she doesn't go out of town.  We have bought nearly everything for our meal, then a day or so before Thanksgiving, we go to the deli at the grocery store and get a few thick slices of roast turkey which is much less expensive (and much more manageable) than buying and roasting a whole turkey since there is only the two of us.
7. Mom cat now shows up every morning for breakfast.  I have no idea where she went more than a month.  Very odd.  Now hubby is spoiling her with bacon or some other type of meat which is why she probably keeps coming back!
8. Find more cut cat videos and pictures here, here, and here.  Also here.
9. Here is a good end-of-the-year financial checklist.
10. Finally, some cool, non-cat, pictures.