Let’s start this up with the most interesting topic and go from there…

• On Monday, I got contacted by business development person. He must have seen my mattress post, because he thought I sold mattresses. It sounded like he has some clients to sell the mattresses to. Alas, since I do not sell mattresses, I can’t take advantage. If you sell mattresses, let me know and I’ll pass along my contacts information.
• I drove by a billboard for a Donald Trump Learning Annex speaking tour. I didn’t find it that exciting except for the headline, which reads, “Meet Donald Live.” I immediately wondered if it would count if I met him dead or previously recorded.
• I transfered $2000 from my checking to pay off part of my Home Equity Line of Credit.

I’ve decided that I’d start to put in some non-financial thoughts of the week. Perhaps this will add a little more “personal” to the “personal finance.”

• Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol just won’t get off the radio. The amazing thing to me is that the song wasn’t nearly as good as it’s debut hit “Run.”
• While on the topic of music, I can only find one good radio station in San Francisco – Live 105.3.  It’s the only station where I could imagine hearing System of a Down and Pearl Jam’s Black.  In Boston, FNX, BCN, and AAF would play this genre.
• I’ve been enjoying the parenting blogs of Raising 4 Boys and Days Like These. Raising 4 Boys is written by popular personal finance blogger Five Cent Nickel, while Days Like These is someone is a reader that’s been bouncing questions off of me lately. If I had children, I’d probably enjoy those blogs even more.

I almost forgot to get this in today. Here are some updates:

– I’ve been fighting with Discover to get my Credit Card Arbitrage experiment going. It turns out that my company’s phone number doesn’t match their system. To further complicate things, bringing my Vonage phone number across company has created some complications. Although I changed my address with Vonage, my number is still an east coast one and thus doesn’t match to my west coast address. I ended up having to fax them a pay stub, but they took no action on it for a week. Finally yesterday, I called to get the status and they are going to look at it again now. All-in-all this is not the 30 second process that others say it is. Keep in mind that I haven’t even tried the balance transfer part of the experiment.

– I continue to lend at Prosper, and I’m learning many, many things and getting better and better. For those that are interested, I’ll be going into detail about this next week. For those that are not interested, I hope you’ll read anyway. There will likely be some principles that will be helpful in other areas.

– As for my new business, the baseball game, I’ve been largely in the planning stages this week. I haven’t done any coding this week, which is a little depressing. This weekend has been more hectic than previous weeks, so I’m not surprised. My time isn’t going to get more plentiful as I’m hosting the Carnival of Personal Finance on Monday. I don’t think my computer will enjoy opening 75+ links at a time in my Firefox to read through the submissions.

– This weekend, I’m going to focus on not spending any money. I have a lot of cleaning to do around the house, so that should keep me busy and productive. There’s also some great weather here in northern California, so I might see if I can get outside. Two great things about fresh air: it’s free and healthy.

 Random financial thoughts this week.

• The weekend started with a business retreat.  I ended up playing craps at a casino with my boss.  I didn’t win any money, but I couldn’t think of a better one-night investment in my career.
• The Zecco.com billboard on the 101 that I’ve been writing about is back.  It seems that they wanted a different design.
• I’ve decided to learn a new computer language and I’m making good progress that should enhance my employment value.
• I’ve got a quick update on my Prosper lending likely coming later today.
• While it’s not financially related, I’d like to thank Travelin’ Man for including me in the Carnival of Dining Out.

This week has been a crazy week. Let’s recap:

• I had mentioned that it’s supposedly Mattress season. I don’t know if I mentioned that I bought a mattress at Costco two weeks ago. It was $450+tax after a coupon. It was a much better deal than what we saw in any mattress showroom. What sealed the deal for Energy Gal and I was that the guy in the showroom at a competing place said that he couldn’t compete. He was so honest we bought our futon frame from him – which we needed.
• I got a flat tire on my way to work on Friday of last week, just minutes after I published my last Financial Week in Review. I went to get new tires this weekend. My first stop was Costco, but they didn’t have anything in stock for my car, not an acceptable answer in my opinion. I then went to Goodyear and they had my tires in a price range I was looking for. When we went to look at my car, the salesman pointed out that all my tires were bad. And you know what? He was completely right! They all had major, major wear to the point of being bald in over 50% of the tire. It cost me over $750, but my car hasn’t driven so well in years. It makes me wonder if that simple flat tire might have saved my life. If you take nothing else from this post, look at your tires!
• I saved some decent money this week. Energi Gal has been away on business so I’ve been taking advantage of my work’s free lunch and dinner. As you are reading this, I’m away on a one-day vacation paid for by my company.

Here’s an update on my finances over the last week.

• Energi Gal and I dropped our taxes off two weeks ago.  They were excessively complex due to the move across country and both of us being landlords.  I’ve got a feeling that H&R Block is going to ask for $5 million just to prepare the taxes.
• The $1000 that I transfered to pay towards my HELOC finally got there today.
• I’ve been getting the run around at Discover for my 0% balance transfer.  Because I have Vonage from when I was in Boston, the phone number doesn’t resolve to my address – a red flag in their system.  For whatever reason, my small company’s address doesn’t match with Discover’s computer – a second red flag.  Thus far, I’ve had two calls and waited 20 minutes before giving up on the third try.  I’ll try again in a few hours.  I’m almost ready to give up and go with Citibank.

That’s about all for this week.  I’ve been taking it easy.  I’m trying to reduce the time, I think about finances to kick back and have a little non-bloggery fun.