$$$

[prog]

My NetBank checking account finally creaked open, a week after I mailed them some checks. The monkey market (ook ook) account I opened at the start of the month makes a shiny quarter's worth of interest daily, which is actually more interest than I've ever earned from a bank account before, so I'm not complaining about that.

Clearly, though, I'll need to get some direct deposit action going on. Mail slow. I plan on aiming this conduit at the money market account, liquidating chunks into the checking account as needed. And once I've settled all this banking hoo-hah (including shutting down all my other accounts, including some I still have open way back in Waterville), it's time to think about longer-term investments. Maybe start a CD, and open a Roth or something for the far-flung stuff.

This is all, of course, just to fill up my financial headspace so that I feel less self-conscious about not getting my taxes done. I really have to do them this year, too, since I'm doubtless owing the gubmint quite a bit, thanks to the non-withheld freelance and royalty checks I collected last year, every last penny of which I spent, since it was all the money I had at the time. (Remember those days? Yipe.) I have new and exciting tax forms to puzzle over, as a result; no 1040-EZ this year. Hmm.

---

I am obligated to write that Mac OS X Nutshell PR column this weekend. Should be fun.