Friday! Update: Soul For Sale, AI, and Pet Insurance 04.28.2006

Woot $65 bonus cash has been funded to my Sharebuilder account. I must say, I've been happily impressed with Sharebuilder, especially with the email notifications they provide throughout the process of opening your account. Everytime I had a question, like, "hmm, I wonder if I qualified for the Costco $65 bonus?" I would get an email shortly after saying, "You're qualified and will be credited $65." Nice. Thanks to Jonathan @ MyMoneyBlog for the introduction to Sharebuilder. Just to recap this week, Brownie has been insured. Vet costs for our furry, and sometimes non-furry, friends can add up quickly. It gives me peace of mind that I can give Brownie the best care regardless of my financial situation at the moment. I'm still smoke free! You know, I'm starting to realize that certain things that I do bring the urge back...for example, just the other day I went fishing...The urge to smoke was stronger than ever! I didn't, but still. Worse my friend and I have this thing, every fish we catch, means one cig. We need a new "thing," and I guess I have to force my mind to dissociate fishing with smoking. I'm also looking to purchase a home in a year or so...I found City Girl wrote up a great post on soul searching to figure out why you want a house. It's a great read, check it out! Speaking of houses, congrats to fivecentnickel and SingleMa on their home purchases! John @ Mighty Bargain Hunter has a great discussion on education. It's important to think about your education and what you expect to get from it. Just like buying a house, I believe you really need to ask yourself why you want to get a degree in abc field. Is it the money? Is it the glamour? Or something else? It's not like you want to spend 4 years of your life getting a degree only to realize you don't like it. Of course, each journey we take is our own unique journey, but you probably don't want to travel down the same path too many times ;). Especially since it's not only time but hardwork and money! Makingourway discusses the money part and who he feels should pay. One day I hope to go back to school. Since it's the weekend, I don't want to leave you thinking about something as serious as education or the 990 posts on PFBlogs.org about gas prices since a little pain does us good, rather I want to leave you with an important question to ponder about "Why is American Idol so popular?" Hah. And buy him a beer while you're there! That's funny. Have a great weekend everyone!