I know you are all dying to know what happened to my new DVD player after the 5-ton TV fell on it.

Well, I'm happy to report that it works just fine, and you can't even notice the dent and broken plastic.

On to other riveting news, I forgot to have Gil the Grocer deliver butter yesterday (guess who wasn't too awake when she placed her grocery order...), so today despite the rain I climbed on my bike and rode over to the nearest store. I also told The Midge, who is recovering from the crud, that we are skipping karate tonight. All this was not done to better my health or The Midge's health, but simply to avoid driving today.

Not much else going on financially. The booming business has me chained to my desk; so as much as I feel like shopping for some fall clothes, it's not going to happen today.

As I've mentioned before, we do not have cable. Instead we borrow DVDs from the library and have an obnoxious set of rabbit ears on our bedroom TV so we can kind of tune in to local channels if we get desperate.

The big TV is in the basement family room, which we rarely use so all it's hooked up to is a DVD player. When it's too icy to run outside, I will go downstairs to run on the treadmill and put a movie in the DVD player so I don't go stark raving mad from boredom.

However, a few months ago, the bedroom DVD player died so I moved the basement DVD player upstairs so I could occupy The Midge with a movie every now and then.

I just got around to buying a new DVD player for the basement last week and my husband graciously was hooking up the DVD player for me this afternoon when the TV fell on the new DVD player -- and sort of on him, but not enough to hurt him.

After we righted the TV (which, by the way, weighs more than the two of us can easily lift...), we discovered the plastic around the DVD drawer was broken and the DVD player itself was slightly dented. However, the power still comes on and the drawer still opens, so hopefully the DVD player itself is still useable. (It's still questionable because my husband is still downstairs working on it. Did I mention that I'm the one with the technical skills in the household?)

If it doesn't work, another DVD player purchase is definitely in my future before the snow hits....

On to other matters, today is going to be a no-drive day. But no such luck with the no-spend day since I did have my groceries delivered this morning. Plus, I rode my bike to the grocery store to get some veggies for a last-minute dish I added to the menu, so more money spent there.

Then I got home and realized I forgot potatoes. After running 4 miles and then biking another 3, my legs were rubber so I was ready to give up on the last-minute dish until I happened to be talking to my neighbor, who said she was going to the grocery store. I asked if she wouldn't mind picking up some potatoes for me, which she was more than happy to do. (I love my neighbors....)

Back to my husband, he bought all our plants for the landscaping project he started last week. $300 later, the corner that usually resembles a weed-laden crack house finally looks decent.

We still have to rip out a dead evergreen by our front door (hate evergreen and/or pine anything). Then we're going to lay a bunch of mulch down and let everything settle over the winter (including our spending plan) before extending our front patio a bit next spring.

Not only is The Midge home sick, but so is my husband. I've ordered them to stay away from me so I can get some work done -- and so I don't catch the cold again....

So today should be a complete no-drive/no-spend day for the whole family. I'm getting ready to make BLT sandwiches for lunch and for dinner we're having homemade pizza.

I also might defrost some pastry puffs from the freezer and make them a treat if I'm able to get at least one booming business project done today.

My doctor finally emailed me and said I have a "slightly abnormal" esophagus and I should go to the GI doctors to get it stretched again, which would be the third time they've stretched it.

I'm thinking I'll wait a while since there's no mass and I'm not going to die or anything like that.

I took a "sick day" today and didn't leave my house, so technically I had a no-spend/no-drive day. I say "technically" because my husband did bring me Arby's for lunch -- but he paid for it so I figure it doesn't count against me personally.

The problem with working at home full time is that you can't really take a "sick day." I still found myself wandering into the office every now and then to chip away at a project I'm working on for the booming business.

But, for the most part, I spent the day napping and reading Twilight, which someone sent me for free along with the second book in the series.

Shipped off some eBay stuff and made a $5.04 profit so my Challenge fund is now up to $11,410.03 and my Vespa fund is $302.83.

There's a big convention coming to town next week and one of the "events" is this thing called the "American Presidential Experience." I humored my husband and let him drag me there today. I should have stayed home and continued nursing myself back to health....

Not only am I now feeling worse (thanks BA), but we also spent $40 to get into the thing, which was worth more like $4.

I did manage to stay home yesterday and not spend money so I logged another no-spend/no-drive day. The Chinese food craving has passed, so I think I'm safe for now....

I would run the rest of my eBay stuff to the post office, but I'm coming down with a cold, the flu or ebola (not sure which, but it's not pretty....)

Since today is the first full day of school for my daughter, I decided it would be my work-at-home-all-day-without-passing-GO-and-spending-$200 day (i.e. I didn't have plans to go anywhere or spend money). However, tomorrow I was planning on volunteering at the school so I figured I would mail my eBay stuff on the way, but then I woke up feeling bad and decided I should probably stay home again.

So basically I'm sitting on almost $180 in challenge money that I can't claim until I mail the eBay stuff.

UGH...

Hey, but on a good note, I pulled our credit reports today and despite my attempts to muck them up with all that debt over there on the left I somehow managed not to.

And, of course, I didn't drive or spend money today (and with any luck won't be for the duration of the day since I'm now going to lay down with a bottle of Nyquil...)

Thanks to a rare rainy day, I didn't drive or spend money today.

All but one of my eBay customers has paid up after I sent them each an email reminder. (I'm giving the other person until the end of this week and then I'm relisting the item.)

I'll post the challenge additions tomorrow after I ship the stuff that did get paid for.

My general savings and money market account aren't looking too good this month because of the huge vet bill so I'd debating putting the eBay money toward that instead of into the Vespa fund, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

A no-spend day and a no-drive day today! I got the floors cleaned, but still need to get some booming business work done tonight....

My daughter is spending the day with my sister, so I'm thinking a no-spend -- AND no-drive -- day might be possible today.

I've got tons of work for the booming business that needs to be done (plus I need to clean the carpet). And, I've got the makings of a tuna fish sandwich for lunch. I see no need to leave the house today....

Since I spent most of yesterday being Cinderella with ratty clothes and a broom, I ended up with a no-drive day. The Midget and I did ride our bikes to the nearby McDonald's for lunch, though, so it wasn't a no-spend day as well.

The Midget still requires training wheels on her own personal bike, but she is very comfortable on the tagalong bike so I pulled her up the hill and around the golf course yesterday on it. Trying to control my bike and the tagalong was treacherous. I'm sure the neighbors thought at least one of us was under the influence as we swerved all over the road.

I figure a few more tagalong outings with me leading the way will inspire the Midget to ditch the training wheels on her big-girl bike....

I've decided to keep track of my no drive days, one of which I had yesterday. We rode our bikes everywhere we went and saw some beautiful sites, including this: