People say I do a damn fine job of sharing everything while saying nothing. Yeah, that’s mostly true. People that know me in real life and those that were a part of the story read my posts and laugh because they can fill in the gaps. For those of you who aren’t with me every single day, most of these posts are pretty vague and fragmented and I like it that way. The most important aspect of these posts is that I can read them 5 years from now and know what the full story is. These are reminders.
In a change of pace, I’d like to share what’s new without any vague notes. Just what’s happening. Enjoy!:
I’ve decided to keep my car through the winter. The $1,000 ’94 Nissan Maxima will stay in my garage as long as I can keep it going. Putting snow tires and a few hundred bucks in maintenance into it for the winter. As long as it cranks and the heater blows okay, I’ll keep it. If it dies, I’ll probably go buy another $1,000 car. I wanted to invest in a new car but I have other plans for my money than buying a new car. If the car fails to crank tomorrow morning, I’ll blame this blog post. Yes, this web server is to blame for my car problems if anything happens.
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I’m taking up baking (Thanks Elizabeth). Time to invest in a dorky apron and, by the looks of my Amazon shopping cart, I’m all set on baking up a storm. Reminder: buy a rolling thing for pies. Yeah, I’m gonna bake like a mad man this winter. I need to master home made pies, cupcakes, lasagna, quiche and Smore Martinis. Yes, I know the smore martini thing is random but trust me, it’s gonna be worth it.
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I’m going to a Dashboard Confessional show in Boston that takes place in a few weeks. I haven’t seen a DC show since October of 2009 and before that, I hadn’t seen one since 2006. Ah memories! Also, Karlyn has convinced me we have to go to Chocolate Bar. I hear they have smore martinis. Just sayin’
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I have to make one big purchase as a Christmas gift to myself. There are two options. One is a new LCD television, I’m inching toward this one with one of those fancy schmancy Google TV boxes from Sony with the included Blu-Ray player. The fact is, I have a 40″ Sony LCD now and it’s way too small for the log cabin. I know, I know! But, this place is huge and I usually watch sports while cooking and cleaning and the TV is small from the kitchen and even kind of small from the couch. Also, the blu-ray player I have is literally the first blu-ray player EVER released by Sony. It takes 10 minutes to power on and load a movie and 25% of the movies i get from Netflix won’t even play on it. Bummer!
The 2nd purchase I’m dying to make is to get a true home espresso machine. None of that Nescafe’ crap. I’m talking one of these.
These two purchases, to most people make zero sense. Let me please solidify my reasoning. At the start of 2010, I commited to spending less money on coffee and movies (entertainment). I also committed to spending less on alcohol. The results have been phenomenal. I drink liquor at home (entertaining friends), I cook every meal at home (if I’m not traveling) and I only drink coffee brewed at home (unless I’m traveling). I’m happy to say that the nearly 7 grand I spent last year on Movies (3K), coffee (1500K) and alcohol (the rest) by going out have been nearly eliminated. Yes, I did spend 3K on movies in 2009. Netflix+rentals on iTunes+movies every weekend really added up.
So, the money I saved is going into better coffee, better movies and, well the better alcohol thing is slowly progressing. I get better every time I make a drink and just bought some more special glassware for belgian beers and some new cocktails that I’ll be trying out. I also finally got a muddler for making Mojitos & Old Fashions. YAY!
Justification solved.
Oh, well I also need an iMac at home because, frankly and I hate admitting this: my iPad and iPhone haven’t been synced since I left San Francisco. They’re still running old OSes, they’re both full cause I’ve been buying music to them directly from iTunes mobile and I have 4 SD cards full of photos that need to be put into iPhoto. My 6 external hard drives (all Mac formatted) are feeling lonely sitting in boxes. This needs to be solved. Sigh. I need a new iMac. I kind of regret selling mine before the move and hesitate to buy one now that I’ve seen what OSX Lion can do. I really wanna wait until Lion comes out but that’ll be next year and I need to sync my iPhone desperately! So, maybe scratch the TV and just get an iMac. IDK. I don’t own a Mac right now. It’s iPhone, iPad and Dell. I need an iMac.
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I’m hosting a HUGE bash at my cabin next week. I invited 10 coworkers & their families to have a pre-thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday. The plan is to cook a crap-load of food, make drinks, have some music. It’ll be fun! I’m looking forward to cooking for everyone. The most I’ve ever hosted is 10 people. This will be gigantic at nearly 20 people. I’ll survive and am super excited to be doing this. Hopefully, we’ll have our first snow by then and it’ll be a winter wonderland at the cabin with the roaring wood stove and good drinks with colleagues. Even my coworker Dan is coming up from Boston for the event. I’m feeling pretty special (don’t screw this up, adam).
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I also have people renting my cabin. Yep, I have listed my house on AirBNB. People can rent it for the night or for the week so while I’m up in Burlington Vermont spending thanksgiving with one of my Florida childhood friends, a young couple will be spending the weekend in my cabin! I listed my cabin there because I figured, “who in the hell would be looking on AirBNB in the middle of New Hampshire?” It turns out someone did so I’ll let them in, give ’em the keys and they’ll be staying here using my house for a few days. I don’t mind and think it’s pretty cool. They have a good rating and I’m making a couple hundred bucks.
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I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a roommate. It is a 5 bedroom house and the landlord says, “if you can pay the rent in full, we don’t care if you have roommates” so it’s up to me if I want to have someone else living here and they just pay me as I set the price. IDK. So the AirBNB thing is kind of a test. Some people will be staying here while I am here so there will be “house guests” who are complete strangers hanging out. I’ll see if I can stand having roommates and if I don’t mind, it might be something I pursue. It’s not about the money, just kind of guilt for being in a huge house.
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Finally, this isn’t set in stone yet but after Thanksgiving in Vermont and mid-december in Boston, I have holiday plans to go home for Christmas. The plan is to take off on the 22nd and stay through the 28th then fly to San Francisco. Yup, San Francisco!
The plan is to stay with friends and spend New Years in SF and fly back on Sunday the 2nd and be back on the 3rd. So, I’ll be taking nearly 2 weeks off work due to PTO + weekends + company holidays. I’m really looking forward to seeing SF friends. It’s not guaranteed but I’m booking in a few days. Really excited about seeing friends and family!
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Also, my Canon S95 is under repair so I haven’t posted any photos lately. Sorry everyone.
THANKS FOR READING!
These two purchases, to most people make zero sense.