Now that my brother Chris doesn't read my journal anymore, there should be no chance of my parents reading this. I don't purposely hide too many things from my parents; but they tend to worry too much about my spending habits and what I do in my free time. I know how to take care of myself, and I do things with the full knowledge that I'm going too far. But I can't really help myself.

So currently I have some $7300 in my checking account. My ESPP contributions kicked up to 10% this month so I'm getting $1400 per paycheck. I just ordered a digital camera -- a Nikon CoolPix 990 which will be released sometime this month. I also bought some NiMH batteries and a charger, and a 160 MB Compact Flash card (which is so big I'm not even sure if it's being manufactured yet). All told a bit more than $1500. I'm waiting for the 3x Telephoto Lens, which will probably cost another $250, but it would be nice to get a 9x non-digital zoom. I need to get the camera now, so that hopefully I will receive it in time to use it for my brother's graduation.

Another thing I've done, which will definitely get my parents mad, is to offer to pay the way for a friend to go to England to see Ms Leick. Three months ago I did intend to go to England, but since then the ardor has died down. It just seems like too much trouble to arrange air travel reservations, hotel reserva- tions, deal with another currency, another country, take the time off. And I hate travelling by myself, it just wouldn't be all that fun. So instead I idly thought about paying for someone else who would like to go but doesn't have the funds.

And then someone (won't say whom) mentioned publicly how they'd really like to go but they don't have the money. Knowing that this person is a huge fan and a nice, although a bit hotheaded at times, person, I thought that this would be the person I help. So we'll see if they can get a ticket to the convention. I expect this will cost say $3000. I'll probably give them the money, they can make their own arrangements, then they can send me anything that's left.

Next is my mom. I have to give her $670 for the taxes (although I'll get $800 from the IRS). She'd also like $1000 to start paying for my car, I think. Usually she puts in some money to an IRA for me, to reduce the taxes. I should pay her back for that, but she never tells me exactly how much and it's supposed to be a gift.

My sister needs the $2000 that I borrowed from her oh so long ago. For my bro' I'm going to buy a new computer. There's a nice 400 MHz G4 with 128MB/20GB and a 17" refurbished monitor, all for $2200. It's not a bad deal and it would be a complete system out of the box, with enough RAM and HD space to be at least comfortable, if not luxurious. That deal will expire in another week and a half, so he needs to make up his mind whether or not he really wants it.

Add $900 left in my credit card and I have some $11300 in major expenses coming up over the next month. $8100 in checking plus the IRS refund, and some $800 extra from my paychecks. So over $2000 short, which I will put on my regular credit card at a 10% interest rate. Unfortunately, it has the lowest credit limit so it may be a bit tricky to have $3000+ floating on it, since it may affect my regular usage of it.

So that's another update on my immediate financial situation. Lest you think that it's all bad, I never count my investments into what I think of as my finances. Some $24000 in 401k and some $66000 in Oracle stock, not even counting my stock options which I won't get any more until June anyway, and I'm well enough off in case of any real emergencies.

Which reminds me. I have no idea if I'll ever get any of the $600+ in hospital bills that I payed for, since I don't know what my insurance paid. I'm hoping that at least the hospital didn't just take money from my insurance and I and keep the extra payments. I don't mind paying for it, but in that case I don't want the insurance people to pay when they don't have to.