Good timing! I was just thinking that all those promotional deals are great, but not worth it with CDs, as sometimes it can be difficult to get your money back out, making sure you don't miss the deadline, etc. Regardless, moving my money around a bunch of banks is not my thing. BUT I just got an e-mail that my local bank is offering a promotional 5.70% c.d. for 8 months. Woohoo. I noticed interest rates were really up yesterday (treasury bills) and was wondering if GMAC would raise their rates again - they have stayed very competitive. But the timing of this is just PERFECT. I have a $6k balance transfer in process right now. So I just pretty much drained most of my savings - about $10k. I will replenish it and then some with the balance transfers that last until next July or so anyway. The only regret I might have is I could renew the c.d. in 8 months at the same rate, if rates drop. Which I may consider because it would really only tie up my cash for 3 months or so beyond the final balance transfer payment. But not sure I want to tie up most of my savings all the same. Then again we have many options. So it could be worth it. If not for the balance transfers I am not even sure if I would bother. OR maybe I would just put a token amount in. But it is pretty sweet to up my return almost 1/2 percent. Going by the bank today anyway for a deposit so I can see if I can open the account today and transfer the money in when it arrives back from GMAC.

& you know GMAC can go up tomorrow, but I have a c.d. in my IRA at 5.50% that I am still pleased with. So I guess it is always a gamble, but locking in a good interest rate for the credit card arbitrage sounds mighty fine to me.

In other news we went for a nice walk around the lake last night. It has been a while, will have to remember to bring the camera. Plus there are 2 new parks along the way. So we went to our 1/2 way point and the kids played at the park for a while. There was a kite there flying and for the life of me I did not see who was flying it until I finally realized it was tied to a tree - LOL. OF course BM wanted to run home and get his kite then. There is certainly hardly ever a lack of wind. Well, it was a very pleasant evening but soon enough it will be hotter than hades and the bugs will be out in full force.

I am also very pleased with LM - he got my tanning genes. As a child I would be so dark most people assumed I Was mexican. WE really don't know my grandfather's ancestry but we always assumed native american, as he had very native american features. I never wore sunscreen as a child (which could have been bad - and means the tanning gene has its downside as I find I forget to sunscreen the kids too since they don't really burn). Anyway, my mom who is pretty much lily white always told me she was very dark skinned until she had children, around the same age I did. I always thought that was a bummer, but in my teens I got my first sunburn and once I was in college, I lost my extreme tan. As far as tans go I can lather up in SPF 45 and go lay outside and look like I have been laying outside all summer, in just a week of tanning, so I still have an edge as for as tanning for beauty I guess (which I Really don't do). But for the most part after years of not needing sunblock, I go for a walk outside or something and then get burned, and for the most part I am pretty lily white. Dh on the other hand is a sunburn machine. If he goes outside for 5 minutes he will turn into a lobster - very fair. So the kids came out blond/blue-eyed/fair I am thinking dear lord, poor kids, we will have to buy stock in sunscreen! But BM seems to have my skin genes and I am very very pleased. As long as he gets sunblock on he will turn 50 shades of tan in an instant. But LM - LM seems to be more a mini-me, and he went to the park one day this week and I Came home and did not recognize him - he was a tan monster - 100 shades of tan after an hour in the sun. I Was shocked. & then I said - well now THAT kid got my genes. LOL. I am just so happy both my boys aren't lobster!!!!! Like I said, I think it is great that they have their own protection form the sun. Phew! But all the same it makes it really easy to forget the sunblock for short jaunts outside. But hopefully I can give them better sun habits than I had growing up. OF course it will be interesting to see how the whole blond/blue-eyed/tan thing works. I wonder what nationality they will be assumed to be. PEople will probably just think they lay out in the sun 24/7 and we are every active because I think the blond/blue-eye thing precludes a mexican heritage. LOL. But we'll see.

Which reminds me something else I failed to mention. I have been getting a lot of compliments on my hair lately. IT is usually pretty flat but after I Wash my hair I twist it up all day and usually only wash every other day. So on the other days I Can wear it down, and my usually limp, lifeless hair actually has some body. Plus I got a really good cut, LOVE my pantene, and don't do anything else to my hair. So I have been getting lots of compliments of late. THen I read how people can't do their own hair and it looks crappy without a salon, etc. & I just roll my eyes at that. (Same with my home done nails which I am always complimented on as well - and I think they look better than plastic nails myself). But I just realized the irony in some of the flack I get about my hair. I have always been told by friends and such that it is so horrible to twist up my hair while it is wet, that it damages the hair. I do it about every other day of the week, and does my hair look damaged??? Not in the least. But I don't know why I was so dumb before. I had a friend telling me this again this week and I Was looking at her as she goes to a salon every few weeks or so. Her hair is dyed around once a month, hairspray and products galore, plus the occasional perm. I don't know why I never put 2 and 2 together before but I am just wondering how you can do ALL that crap to your hair but not twist it up in the name of damaging it. PEople are SO funny. Anyway, next time anyone says anything I think I will just have to say "bite me." LOL. The other funny thing is my hair has settled on a very dark brown color. It has always been rather dark, but I did the whole perm thing throughout the 80s, and into the 90s so with 50 perms yeah I KNOW how damaged your hair gets with those. & my hair in the end was getting to the point I would sometimes be called blonde. A little extreme, but it was getting light. Then I went through a phase where I died it a few times, and one final perm around 2000 before I got too lazy and stopped caring. & now I am disgusted by all the chemicals I once put on my head. So anyway, my grandma tells my mom recently that I most definitely dye my hair. I was like um, okay, did you tell her that all those perms and peroxide bleached my hair my entire teen years? Oh yeah, but my grandma thanks I am full of it and I dye my hair. Okay then - do I have any roots? LOL. I just think that is funny. I am blessed since gray hair seems to hit my family young, that I haven't had many grays yet, and maybe she is just assuming I couldn't be so dark-haired otherwise. Which mostly tells me I better enjoy this small window of opportunity for beautiful dark hair because it will turn gray soon. My mom has beautiful silver gray hair that I always thought I wouldn't mind on black hair, but how gray can look so crummy on brown hair. But the other day BM told me the other day that I have black hair, and it does seem my hair is getting darker with time. Maybe I Can pull off the silver look - time will tell. IT is funny because I always thought my mom had black hair and she would ALWAYS insist it is dark brown - hehe. So I figured I would embrace it - sure - black is my favorite color anyway. I much rather not dye my hair to hide the gray but I am realistic with myself - I won't know until the time comes what I Can or can not live with.

Anyway, lord knows what I am blabbing on and on about. But yes, today is shaping up to be quite busy. I Was telling my mom a little about that movie - Little Miss Sunshine and like homebody said - some of it hit a little close to home I think. I mentioned the van that had to be pushed to start and my mom said - oh we had a car like that once. LOL. So yeah, I Think they will enjoy. They are coming up today and I am all excited. My mom visits often, but not my dad. As far as me, I have aerobics in a couple of hours, hit the bank, and I brought a ton of work home. Brought stuff I can work on a little mindlessly so I can setup the laptop downstairs and be a little social. & I guess I will try to whip out an article before aerobics class.

Anyway, work was hell yesterday. I just wanted a good 8-hours to make progress on a big project (not done yet with the constant interruptions of late). & well by 2pm I hadn't even started because everyone wants everything yesterday. I am just so overwhelmed I Can't really look beyond tomorrow. I just tell myself it all always gets done - it WILL get done. I have no idea how, but it will. I brought a lot of work home, but I keep telling myself I can work every day until my cruise if need be. I just don't want to come back to a landslide, but I think it is inevitable. blah. Plus another coworker is on vacation next week and I have to get some of her work out. Figures. Is this payback for all my maternity leaves? OF course honestly last time I Was on maternity leave I swear they just left stuff for me. LOL. Now that was a nightmare - coming back to stuff that hadn't been touched for months. Yeesh. But I am sure they did a lot of scrambling to make my clients happy too. So here's my payback. Oh but anyway, I only got a couple of hours on said client but I made significant progress. Phew. I am not sure if I will have a finished product before my vacation, but I can get the difficulties out of the way at least. I feel like this is my biggest obstacle to catching up for now. But I will be raking in some overtime which is not all bad at all...