Mike Writer

Weekend Update

2008-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Friday
Incredibly long and painful day at the office. Rest of the evening was hazy but it involved chick-fil-a and cleaning the house.

Saturday
Up early to finish cleaning, then got stuck in ridiculous traffic trying to get to Raleigh for the niece's first birthday party. Got to catch up with some friends on the way into town and confirm that all of our parents are slowly loosing it. Then lots of good food and baby time. Long drive back home that evening with the in-laws behind us.

Sunday
Up early due to forgetting to get food for the in-law visit. At the last minute they decided they wanted to go to Williamsburg to shop. Quick shower to drive an hour to walk around the outlets for the afternoon. Sent the in-laws back to WV and watched Notting Hill while I ate ice cream for dinner.

Phoebe

2008-09-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

Phoebe is our four year old Eskipoo. She just celebrated her fourth birthday (yes, we are THOSE yuppies that buy birthday cakes for their dogs) so I thought I would share a little bit about life with Phoebe.

We bought Phoebe from a pet store in the mall in Columbia, MD. I know, I know, pet stores are the most horrible place to purchase a dog, but we just could not resist. I had just taken my CFP exam and we had decided to celebrate by having a nice quiet evening out at the movie theater. Being as we were in the middle of Columbia on a Saturday evening we should have known better. The movie was sold out. So we decided to go play with the puppies in the pet store. Yeah, we did this often...we like puppies! Little did my wife know, but I was already planning on getting her a puppy for Christmas. So we found a dog similar to one she had been wanting (she wanted a Cockapoo)...and took her to one of the little stalls to play with her for a while. We both fell in love with this tiny little black furball.

While playing with her, she started to twitch and jump backwards. We thought, oh how cute, she's 'special'. At the time she weighed four pounds and easily fit in my palm. We sat in there for an hour discussing the pros and cons of adding a new puppy to our mix. My dog, Billy, was getting old and grumpy. He hated playing with other dogs...so naturally we thought that getting a puppy would help.

My wife is an engineer, so it took some time for her to realize she wanted to commit to taking this little mutt home with us...luckily I can be quite the convincer : ) The poor puppy was scared to death on the car ride home. Billy wanted nothing to do with her for the first few weeks, but eventually she grew on him.

That's when we made the horrifying discovery. Puppies from pet stores cannot be crate trained. They've been pooing in their crates for some time. For months, we would come home from work (at lunchtime too) to her having rolled around in pee or poo. It was DISGUSTING. One on of her trips to the vet, the vet asked us how often we bathed her because she had developed a small cause of dandruff. We calmly explained how when you come home from work and your puppy is covered in its own feces...you know the body parts she couldn't reach to eat it...you tend to want to bath the little bugger. This continued...for months. Then she decided that the snow wasn't fun and really to suite her well for taking care of her business. Many times that winter, I would stand outside in pjs begging the dog to poop. She would sass me (see this post for more on that), come back inside, stare at me and piss on the floor. SO COMPLETELY NERVE RACKING!!

Eventually she grew out of all these fun little poo tricks of hers. So now she's four. Finally out of the puppy stage. Yeah, four and no longer a puppy...it has taken that long. Sure, we had thoughts of giving her back, taking her to some sort of doggie military school, or leaving her in the backyard until one of the neighbors shoots her for barking nonstop until she's allowed back in the house. But she's finally the dog we always wanted (note: Billy is the perfect dog, so we had high expectations from the start). She'll listen to us (for the most part), loves to cuddle with us (on her terms), and is fiercely loyal to us. Best of all, she has got so much personality it amazes us each day. It's been a long four years!

On the subject of Politics

2008-09-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

Let's start with this. I dislike politics. The main reason for this? Cause I think I'm right and am unlikely to waiver in my opinion. But I also don't like to get into (what I deem to be silly) discussions over one canidates choice on one topic...because in most cases a) the canidate will not actually do anything about that topic once elected or b) will change their position at some point in time to suite themselves.

The one thing I really don't understand and really grates my nerves is why is it national news when a celebrity chooses a side? Is America that obsessed with celebrity status that we actually care what these people (who CLEARLY are not like a typical American) think about politics? Seriously people, CNN does NOT need to post an article on their website about Lindsey Lohan's dislike for Palin. Especially when a few months ago it was a headline about her latest run-in with the law and stint in re-hab. Although, I guess I shouldn't complain too much because in reality that sort of gives me an inclination to vote for McCain!

Weekend Update

2008-09-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

Friday

Another uneventful day at the office, but I thanks to a good friend, we secured tickets to two VT games! Watched The Great Debaters with the wife and went to bed early. Excellent movie, btw.

Saturday

Up early to pull two large trash bags worth of weeds out of the flower beds. Washed the truck then off to go shopping. Home just in time to watch the Hokie game. Ate a quick bite then off to play poker with some friends. Up way too late watching the little lady try and win me some money.

Sunday

Overslept due to poker. Cleaned the house. Off to Blockbuster and Sam's Club (my favorite place in the west end) to buy lots and lots of food. Ran out to Stony Point because it was Phoebe's birthday and we've become 'those people' that treat their dogs like children. Spent an hour walking around the mall with our spoiled little yuppy dog. She didn't want people to touch her, but wanted to sniff everyone...and she refused to drink water out of the bowls (it's a dog friendly mall) instead drank straight from the faucet after I turned it on. And yes we bought her a little doggie cake from Three Dog Bakery. Cut the grass and then watched Miss Pettigrew.

Weekend Update

2008-09-09T06:12:00.001-07:00

It's Tuesday. I know my three loyal readers are wondering what we did this past weekend. So here ya go...

Friday
Watched and thoroughly enjoyed What Happens in Vegas. I'm not a fan of Cameron Diaz...at all. But she was less annoying in this movie and most scenes were stolen by Ashton Kutcher. This is the first movie in a long time that had me crying from laughing so hard.

Saturday
Watched the rain for hours. Cleaned the house some...why do two people and two dogs need three toilets?? We need some kids so I can give my half of the chores away : ) Then we sat around and listened to the Tech game on lame AM radio. Next year we'll have Xm in the house. Silly tropical storm was kind of a let down...so we went window shopping. Then we watched 21. Why is Kevin Spacey always so creepy. The movie was definitely entertaining and worth a Blockbuster rental (only if you have their online service, seriously people, why have you not signed up for that yet?).

Sunday
Up to run to Kroger so we could have some food. Then off to Race Day at RIR! My dad drove down from podunk MD to see the race. We used to always go to Bud's Creek growing up to watch the Friday night drag strip crowd. Sadly, RIR is a step above that. The people watching was awesome as always. The race was even pretty good too. Don't ask me who my driver is, I'm not THAT into Nascar. I like to go the race, I can't stand watching races on TV (or really any sport other then Hokie Football). But it was confirmed that Lowe's is better then Home Depot...

August $ Update

2008-09-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

It will be nice when I can report that our accounts actually made money during the month! Thankfully, everything is still at least positive...but only because of our contributions. I have to figure out a better way of reporting this stuff. Anyway, our net worth is up about 1.5% for the month again all of that is from contributions.

Some how we managed to be way under budget this month. It helps that my wife had some overtime and an extra paycheck in August. Our gas bill (for the cars) went down a bunch thanks to the recent price drop at the pump. Don't get me wrong, I'm still for higher gas prices, but I won't complain when I've got extra cash.

This is especially true now that it seems every other bill is going through the roof. Last week I paid our Verizon bill which went up 17% in one month. We didn't add any extras or have any sort of limited time offer that expired. I have not called to complain or at least find an answer to the increased cost, but I will be soon. The only reason I haven't is because I love our Verizon service...and they just added a bunch of HD channels for me : ) I probably should cancel the cable all together, but for now I can afford it and there's just nothing that beats coming home to watch Barefoot Contessa in HD!!

Weekend Update...Special Edition

2008-09-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend started on Wednesday...which is really how I prefer to roll...

Wednesday
Drove the wife's hot new car to Cville so Em could pick me up to start our road trip. Got to Blacksburg and had dinner with my old advisor and her husband...munched on yumminess at The Cellar (which btw the food is still amazing and service disgustingly slow). Packed up the Prius and to bed late.

Thursday
Up early to sit in the Prius. Drove through Southwest VA...and realized I missed those crazy rednecks down there. Spent 30 minutes looking for a Chick-fil-a in Tennessee because the bill board wasn't clear on the directions and our GPS was old school and hadn't been updated. Drove to Russellville, Arkansas to a pleasantly cheap yet not sketchy motel.

Friday
Up early to have more bonding time with the Prius. Fun little lunch in downtown Oklahoma City. Witnessed some crazy rain storms in Northern Texas...seriously...we could tell it was raining a mile before we got into it...and rain drops so large it looked like it was snowing!! Everything really is bigger in Texas. Bored to tears in Eastern New Mexico. Slept in Albuquerque...which seemed like a nice little mountain town

Saturday
Up early again...to a surprising chill in the air. Why had I assumed that New Mexico would be blazing hot in late August?? Was amazed at a) the beauty of western New Mexico and b) the insanely long trains that we kept seeing over and over...I also had no idea we used trains as much as we do to transport stuff still. Spent the afternoon driving in the Mojave desert...and was incredibly thankful the car didn't leave us there...seriously people...an hour and a half went by without seeing a house, cow, anything alive. Saw some more crazy rain storms, but seemed to skirt around most of them. In Pasadena at 5ish. Unpacked the car at the new place. Dealt with much crying, worried mothers, and drugged up friends.

Sunday
No sleep. Like literally...no sleep. Cranky and hungry...thankfully I packed pop tarts and we found coffee quickly. Off to the craziest experience at a Home Depot...ever. 50 or so hispanics hanging out in the parking lot...assuming they were looking for work? Two preppy white kids in the Prius apparently looked like they needed help. Much cleaning, fixing, hanging curtain rods, etc. Off to the airport to realize I booked my flight home on THE WRONG DAY. Very tired and very frustrated. Had to get picked up at the airport...more on this later.

Monday
Up at 3:45am to call Delta to try and get on an early flight. To the airport to catch a 7:45am flight. So tired I was almost in tears. I'm big (6'5") so there was no way I could sleep on the plane. Spent four hours being incredibly uncomfortable...usually I steal leg room from my lovely wife cause she's small and can sleep standing up...but no wife on this trip : ( Banged my head on the STUPID tv screen trying to get off the flight. Turned around to the heckles...which stopped after people realized I could turn this into a fun little domino effect for the ENTIRE PLANE. Caught my connecting flight and was able to score an exit row seat with legroom!! So excited until a large former football player sat next to me. Don't ask who, I don't know. Something about college ball and the Redskins. Two night of no sleep and a sore back left me not giving a rip who was around me as long as they didn't slow down the process of getting back to Richmond. Got back home to a wife who needed attention (not like that!!!). Tried my best to not be cranky and fall asleep while sitting on the couch.

ps
will get pics as soon as i get them...no room in my one small back pack to fit a camera!

I'm back!

2008-09-02T12:03:00.001-07:00

More details to come, but I'm back in Richmond after a very long few days. We made it out to LA just fine and the Prius held up well (even though I hate it). I've been struggling all day today at the office though!

ps
You know you dislike your job when you would rather drive 2,600 miles in three days then be in your office for two.

ROAD TRIP

2008-08-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Once a year or so we get a group of friends together and drive south. This typically involves a VT football game. Since we've been in Richmond, we tend to wait til the end of the year to go to the ACC championship or the bowl game. Good times always insue. Our good friend Emily is always present...usually in the middle seat of my car, with Roshan and Larissa on each side. The ackward fifth person is usually a guy...which means he gets to ride shot gun. Don't ask why that is the case, I don't have any idea.

This year will be a little different. Silly Emily is moving to LA this week. So instead of us driving to Atlanta or Jacksonville this year, we're heading west. Yup, that's right. In two days I get to sit in the car FOR THREE DAYS STRAIGHT. I'm excited about making the whirlwind trip, but anxious about how my ADD will set in somewhere in Tennessee...and not go away until we reach Pasadena.

I'm going to try and take some pics on the way out there...all 2,600 miles of it...but don't look forward to any postings until next week. We're doing 12 hour days driving...first night an hour west of Little Rock and then Albequerque! Then I have 24 hours in LA to help Emily find a sweet new ride before I board my red eye flight back east.

If all goes well, Roshan and I will plan a similar trip (with a few more stops in between) next year.

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No Postings?

2008-08-26T06:25:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a couple of very busy weeks for us and I haven't had a lot of time to get the rambling thoughts down. A good friend of ours is getting ready to move to LA (more on that soon) so we've been trying to help her pack, clean, move, etc. We've been in our house for two and a half years now and I cannot imagine if we decided to move today. It's amazing to think about the amount of stuff two people can accumulate in such a short period of time! And we're not even pack rats!

Then we made the mistake of going out and looking at houses. WHY DO WE DO THIS TO OURSELVES? I grew up in the country (as in cow farm across the street, tobacco and corn down the road a bit)...so as much as I wanted to get out of there after high school, I find myself wanting to move out to the country...where you don't have to build a fish pond to mask the sound of the interstate...or want to shoot your neighbors dogs because they enjoy yapping at your dogs. Don't worry, we're not moving. But that doesn't stop us from looking. We're at the point now where we need to actually do maintence to our house. Nothing is broken, but we haven't stayed in one place long enough to think about things like power washing the siding, getting the ac vents cleaned, hiring someone to look at the furnace once a year, etc. Unless I win the mega millions this week! Then we're off to Goochland where I can have a basement and a riding lawn mower!

Weekend Update

2008-08-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

So what if it's Wednesday and I didn't give you a weekend update yet? There's only two of you that read this ;-)

Besides, by now I don't remember what we did all weekend. We puppysat for some friends all weekend so pretty much we sat around watching three dogs play, growl, lick, attempt to hump, and various other antics. I'm pretty sure anyone that voluntarily has three dogs needs to have their heads examined!!

Oh yeah and we got to check out the Rackley's sweet new house...and convinced their four year old daughter to allow us to move in once the house is complete. BTW, thanks for making me want a new house...especially when all the neighborhoods we've been interested in have been dropping prices like mad.

July $ Update

2008-08-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

The markets continue to not help us out this month. But I know every $ we put aside now means we're buying shares on sale : ) Just can't wait til November...in hopes that the election will bring about some stability.

We managed to be under budget this month thanks to George W's check finally arriving. Too bad my speeding ticket and an ER trip ate into good chunk of that. Next month should be sweet if we can keep our spending under control since my wife will recieve an extra paycheck. Perfect timing because I want to go on a short vacation : )

Net worth was up ~1.7% for the month...mainly due to my company finally depositing my profit sharing contribution into the 401(k). If the markets will cooperate a little more, we'll be on track to meet our net worth goal by the end of the year.

It's Finally FRIDAY!

2008-08-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a LONG day. I had the opportunity to travel up to DC for the day to participate in a field test for the certification exam (read: 10 hours of grueling nightmarish testing) I took a few years back. It turned out to be a really cool experience and got me a little more excited about the field I'm in and think possibly about alternative career paths that would still allow me to use my skillz. That's right, with a z. It was also fun to get to see some sights (albeit from the car) of downtown DC. But boy did it remind me of why we don't live in that area anymore. Traffic is just a nightmare!! I am looking forward to a roadtrip (or possibly a train trip if I can convince my wife to get on the Amtrak) to visit some good friends of ours that recently moved up there.

On a crappier note, it's been a rough morning so far. I pulled into the garage this morning admiring the sweet Audi A8 in front of me. Then I think to myself, wow that guy's got it together, sweet ride, impecable suit, fairly distinguished looking...then he slammed the door in my face...twice. I work downtown and park in an ancient garage, whose doors slam shut. So the nice gentlemen decided it was beneath him to hold the door open for the five seconds til I got to it. People, I'm not a small person, he saw me. Further confirmed that the bankers downtown are not nice people and they all hate their jobs worse then I do! Also makes me want to go pee on his car ;-)

Oh the dingleberry

2008-08-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

My wife decided to start teaching our neice bad habits early...

Weekend Update

2008-08-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

Too exhausted this morning to cover any of the other thoughts in my head...

Friday
Home from work a little early to pack, clean up the house and drive to Raleigh. Got into town much later then we were expecting. Got to drive this and was amazed at the ridiculousness of it. Too bed late.

Saturday
Almost died from lack of sleep and humidity induced headache. Drugged myself up real good as to not irritate the in-laws. Much baby playing highlighted by the fact that our neice loves me best ;-) Only know this because she loves to pull on my face and look at me with odd stares (read: she's confused why this giant white creature is holding her and making funny sounds at her). Late birthday lunch for the mother-in-law here...very tasty but not vegetarian friendly.

Sunday
More baby playing. Drive back to Richmond to drop off the wife, then off to MD for Dad's birthday. Ate too much and forced to get a large Starbuck's to make the trek back to Richmond.

Why I hate Politicians

2008-07-29T04:57:00.000-07:00

I tend to not want to get involved in politics. Usually because people are so 'passionate' about their 'side' that anything that goes against their side becomes offensive. Not always the case, for sure, but more then not, it is. Just the sad truth.

As a responsible tax-paying citizen it infuriates me that our government is even considering bailing out banks and homeowners over this mortgage mess. I mean, seven years ago the government turned a blind eye to all of these mortgage brokers getting FILTHY rich off uneducated (in mortgage terms) home buyers who purchased too much house with too little money. What drove it all? GREED. The mortgage brokers quickly got used to large paychecks making these deals and home buyers wanted bigger more expensive houses.

Now the politicians want to use our tax money to bail these people out? Excuse me? Are you (insert bad word here) kidding me? Turn a blind eye to bad behavior and then reward it with a slap on the wrist and forgiveness? Unfortunately, I think this is just the beginning of this mess.

In the interest of being fair and full disclosure, my wife and I purchased two homes in the last five years with ARMs, not because we could not afford the fixed rate counterparts, but because we knew we would not be in those houses for more then five years and had already calculated what our potential mortgages would be (and made sure they were within our budget) if rates went up. By the time we bought our current house (two and a half years ago) I had already figured out that the cheap money wasn't going to last forever so we locked in a fixed rate...all the while the mortgage broker telling us we could 'afford' twice the house we purchased.

Thankfully the Richmond real estate market doesn't seem to be doing all that badly. Though we would take a small loss if we were to sell the house today.

Weekend Update

2008-07-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

I was greeted this morning with fuzzy cloud of sleepiness. So bear with me as the Starbucks kicks in. Yes, Starbucks. It was necessary.

Friday
Made yummy dinner from leftovers. Then we tried to watch The Heartbreak Kid and was quickly reminded why we don't watch Ben Stiller movies. Is it really necessary to have all the nakedness in a 'comedy' film? And why does Ben always always play the same character in every movie he is in. Spent the rest of the evening feeling dirty and wondering why we even put it on our Blockbuster list.

Saturday
Up early to let Phoebe pee and play. Cleaned the dogs white-trash style (read: with a hose on the deck) complete with sleeves rolled up on nasty white t-shirt. Good times. Then proceeded to clean the rest of the house to make my lovely wife happy. Then off to Fredicksburg to meet up with our friends Josh and Jen and their adorable little girl. We're still trying to convince them to move to Richmond...and we're not going to give up either Josh! Home to hang out with Emily who is leaving us for LA.

Sunday
Woke up with a headache and wife had a stomach ache so we didn't make it to church. Took a nap. Then watched Meet the Brown's. Helped a friend fix his wife's car in the thunderstorm. Seriously contemplated the intelligence I possess as I hooked up a car battery outside while thundering and lighting.

Car Dealers

2008-07-25T05:13:00.000-07:00

Why is it so hard to find a decent car dealer in the Richmond area? We have three cars, each a different make so on the rare occassion I have to deal with a dealer it's a pain in the tail...and in fact we have not purchased a car in Richmond (well Colonial Heights, but that's a 40 minute drive). I do all of the routine maintence on our cars...I know how to and it's relaxing to spend a couple hours a month in the garage getting dirty.

The latest to add to my hit list is the local Acura dealer. I should have known better then to call them after they tried to give a ridiculous offer on my wifes new car (which we saved $1500 by driving two hours north!). So she stained the floormat. Black spots on tan floor mats don't look so hot on your brand new car. So I ordered some all weather mats for her. Found a great Acura dealer on Ebay (right, I know, of all places). Saved $40. I asked new friend how much the dealer pays for the mats. Half the amount the local dealer was going to sell them to me. I'm all for people making a buck, but come on. Humm, how quickly I have forgotten about how the local dealer gave me free touch up paint a few months back...opps :-)

The local Honda dealer. Oh gosh, where to start with them. Let's just say the service department has me blacklisted :-) Who knew that calling American Honda directly and reporting the problem and the dealer to the NHTSA would put the service managers panties so wound up. Well, if that didn't put her over the edge, getting Honda Corp to pay for the faulty part and making the dealer do the work for free really got a bug up you know where. Only downside to the $600 savings is now I have to drive 40 minutes to have my car serviced.

Okay, I'm done ranting. Happy Friday internets.

Weekend Update

2008-07-21T05:10:00.001-07:00

Friday

Strange day at the office, came home to a large group of male engineers playing Wii
and drinking beer. Good times insued.

Saturday

Went to see The Dark Knight with the wife. We're so old and lame now that we went to the 12:30pm showing. Worth every penny to see it in the theater...and see the older Indian woman (complete with a sari) yelling to find her daughter...in the middle of the movie.

Sunday

Wife had to go into work, so I skipped church and went house hunting in Goochland. Found lots of really nice houses that I cannot afford. Then off to Lowes to get a fun new plant for the patio. Played with Robb at the Mac store. Ended up at some random older guys place with lots of gin and tonics. Will never ever again let Carter talk us into a surprise.

Welcome to our new backyard

2008-07-18T05:06:00.000-07:00

It's finally done!! Sure, there's plants to put in, some more mulch that needs to go around the existing flower beds, but for the most part, the patio and pond are complete. So it took a little longer then expected but at least I didn't go over my budget : ) (Tip: Always, ALWAYS, way over estimate on EVERYTHING on ANY project. Trust me, your wife will be far more forgiving if it takes you two months longer to get the job done, as long as you didn't spend too much money!!!)

Even better is that George W.'s check was deposited yesterday in our account. At least he got one thing timed correctly : )

Here's some pics...

You'll note that we had so much extra stone left that I made a little bench next to the pond and a stepping stone path that leads to our driveway. Fun little additions that didn't cost anything!! We've still got plenty of time left this summer for some cookouts...and even more exciting is when the weather gets a little cooler we can make smores on the fire pit : )

ps
I have sworn off HGTV for a little while. Those fools make everything look so easy and only takes them two days. LIARS!

Weekend Update

2008-07-14T05:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm totally stealing this idea from other bloggers, but they should be flattered. A good idea should be passed around, right?

Friday
Long day at the office followed by lots of yummy things from the grill. Spend some time hanging out with the wife on the patio until the bugs got too much for her.

Saturday
Phoebe slept in until 8 (typically around 6:30 she's bouncing off my side of the bed licking my head or burrowing under a hand). Did some cleaning, helped my wife clean the floormats to her brand new car due to an ugly incident with a dirty umbrella and tan carpet. Picked up some top soil for my herb garden then proceeded to melt in the Richmond heat while getting way too much dirt out of my poor lil truck. Tasty Thai food for dinner (along with the best drinks in town) then watched Jumper.

Sunday
Skipped Church. I know, we're heathens. Pulled weeds and cleaned up the yard. Helped a friend move furniture and get her house in order. Ate too much Outback and went to bed too late.

Shopping

2008-07-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

While out and about on Saturday (to get top soil for the backyard...pics soon...really this time) we discovered a new Target. We were quite confused how a brand new Target somehow sprung up 4 miles from our house without us ever realizing it. Probably because we have three other Target's within 10 miles from our house! It may become our new favorite Target due to the fact that at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon it was virtually empty.

A client of mine recently told me that Richmond has one of the highest per capita retail square footage in the country. So are they just hoping for the 'if you build it they will come' mentality? Craziness I tell you!

Why in the world do we need four Target's (and three Wal-Mart's, four Lowe's, two Home Depot's, etc) so close?? Don't even get me started on the 24 Starbuck's near our house.

Apathy

2008-07-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Not much going on these days. Trying to think of new ways to keep the posting consistent and interesting. More to come on that soon.

We've been having lots of wonderful thunderstorms lately. I love the rain, hate that it drives the puppy completely nuts. One night, she was so exhausted from the previous two nights storms, that she just crawled under our bed and went to sleep. No whining, no panting, nothing. We thought maybe she's been 'cured'. Yesterday a storm managed to scare the poo and pee out of her. Silly dog. I imagine the days of having kids who will wear diapers and not have to clean their poo off the carpet. Last night, no storms, but the poor little (read: crazy) dog kept looking out the windows wondering when it would storm. Turns out in her head the washing machine running means a storm is eminent.

The rain also has meant that progress on the backyard has come to a hault. Pleasant weather tomorrow should help get a few more things completed off the list. I may even get around to posting some more pics of what our backyard is transforming into.

June $ Update

2008-07-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else happen to notice the stock markets sucked the life out of everything in June?? We ended the month down 1.7%, which actually wasn't too terrible considering the stock markets as a whole were down way more then that. I'm sure we're in for a rough couple of months until the election is over. In the meantime, the wonderful media will surely be continuing to feed on the gas and food price climb and adding fuel to the market volatility fire.

On our budget, we some how managed to stay on track overall. Our gas and food portions where way off the charts, like most people these days.

Getting closer

2008-07-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

We're getting very close to having the backyard complete...at least for this year. I spend a few days of our vacation last week hauling more gravel and sand back from the lovely people at the local stone yard. I have to go into some details about the patio and pond because the picture does not do it justice (more pics after I clean up the yard some). In order to put the pond and patio in, my new lil red Tacoma has hauled:

1/2 ton of cement
2 tons of sand
3.5 tons of gravel
3.5 tons of stone

So here it is...

The lights we picked up at Lowes on clearance a few weeks ago just had to go in asap. Overall we're still below the budget we set for this little endevour (thanks George W.!!) and my estimates for how much we saved over hiring a professional to do all of this...well let's just say that I've now justified a large percentage of the cost of my truck : )

Our baby girl is sooo special

2008-06-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Two and a half years ago we walked into a mall after I spent two days taking a 10 hour exam and leaving the movie theater after The Incredibles was sold out again. Two hours after entering the mall, we were those crazy people you see walking around the mall with a little puppy in their arms. How did a tiny little black furball capture our heart? We thought she was 'special', in the ahhh look she got dropped on her head too many times kind of way. Turns out what made her 'special' was actually her telling us to 'get with the program and do as she says'...with a Wanda Sykes voice : ) Two and a half years later she's still got it...

Tobacco...the root of some evil

2008-06-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

We all know what the real root of ALL evil is, but I don't want to get into too much trouble...

Anyway, on the drive home this afternoon there was a lovely Lexus in front of me with a distinguished looking gentlemen smoking a pipe. Since the weather was amazing today, I had the windows down and sunroof open. Which then lead to the wonderful smell of sweet pipe tobacco to enter my car. Then that small patch in my brain that thrives on nicotine kicked in and said YOU MUST HAVE SOME OF THAT RIGHT NOW.

Before I get hate mail, rest assured, I don't smoke. I did on occassion during high school and college, but those days are long gone...thank goodness too because they usually also included a natty light. I had high standards ;-) After becoming a Christian, I have on occassion enjoyed some cigars. But its been years since my last one...thanks to my one 'smoking' friend moving far far away (which I believe was a plot by our wives to seperate us due to our inclination for cigars and breakfast at Bob Evans...and the Baptist church).

Anyone up for a cigar night??

Summer Storms

2008-06-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

The one part of summertime coming that I enjoy is the great thunderstorms. Richmond seems to get nice storms...which is probably due to the fact that 85% of the summer is hot, humid and just miserable. Here's what we were treated to as we ate dinner this evening...

Gas

2008-06-10T14:29:00.001-07:00

I have a question. Why is there no 'standard' for how much gas you have left in your tank when the little yellow light comes on??

For years, my wife and I have been driving Honda's. Over the years I've just learned to ignore the little yellow light, or at least not panic over potentially running out of gas. In every Honda we've owned (totalling a whopping seven to date) the little light means we've got 2.5-3 gallons of gas left...or ~75-100 miles. No big deal. (As a side, I know it's not good to let the gas light come on all the time, and we don't usually as a habit.)

So imagine my surprise when I pull up to Wawa this afternoon in my Toyota truck to realize that I only had 1/2 a gallon left! Granted the light came on during my trip home from the office (11 miles each way), so I'm thinking it came on when I had about one gallon left. Yikes! Good thing I didn't follow my instinct and just go home...since that would put me at about 13 miles left when I got gas. Good lesson to learn now!!

Heat Wave

2008-06-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

Not a fan of Summertime in Richmond. We've had a perfectly lovely Spring this year...which came to a screeching halt late last week when the temp decided to hoover around 100.

Needless to say, the backyard has not seen too much progress since I can't get too much work done with it being this hot : (

May $ Update

2008-06-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't fully discussed all of the info I want to share on here with my wife yet, so for this month we'll keep it simple. Basically this month we were over budget due to the pond, patio, patio furniture, etc which was spent now knowing George W. would be sending us a check soon to cover it. Even with all that, our networth was up ~3% due to the stock markets continual recovery from the first quarter.

Every month I update an Excel Spreadsheet with our budget and net worth. There are several reasons for this. First being I'm a financial planner and therefore I feel like in order for me to preach at clients the importance of budgeting (or at minimum, keeping track of what you spend) I need to do the same.

Second, my wife is an engineer. I love her dearly, but she has this need to know where our money is at all time and that we are going above and beyond what is necessary so that she can retire earlier rather then later. Plus over the last few years, our marriage has changed from her keeping track of every last penny to relying on me to pay the bills and manage our portfolio. Her job doesn't allow the time required to do this. So the monthly update has been any easy way for us to communicate how we are doing financially.

The net worth evolved from updating the budget simply because I had to easy access to all the information needed. I've found over the years it is a great way to encourage us to continue putting money aside and paying down debt. Plus on those months that I spent a little too much at Lowe's, I was able to show my wife that even though I went well over my budget, our net worth was still increasing! The power of compound interest is awesome to see in real life!!

Why this works for us? I'm the half of the relationship that likes to spend. My wife would be perfectly content hoarding away everything. I'm more then okay with this!! So by looking at our finances each month, we're able to keep ourselves accountable to each other and we now only purchase larger ticket items when we know we have extra income one month, or cut back in a different area. Plus we have the habit of not purchasing anything without the others permission...even down to a trip to the local Krispy Kreme. Yeah, it might sound very extreme to some, but as the spender in the relationship, it's helped us amass what we have and enjoy our money working for us instead of us working for the money.

If anyone is interested in the spreadsheet template to use for yourselves, just drop me an e-mail!

Fishies to come soon

2008-06-03T05:22:00.000-07:00

The fish pond is now all set up! Finally!! A few minor details to complete, but nothing too big and it at least looks like a functioning pond now : ) We'll let it run for a week or two and then get some feeder goldfish to see how long they'll make it! Don't worry, we added three plants to the pond after this pic was taken, so they'll hopefully be able to hide from any predators.

I don't think this little guy counts as a predator, but he's been hanging out in our yard a lot lately...

A Walk in the Park

2008-05-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

The last few days in the office have been painful. Sheer boredom and complete apathy have set in and there's no telling when they're going to head out. So today at lunch my co-worker and I ate lunch at the Capital. It's kind of cold and gloomy today, but the rose bushes were in full bloom and we had some cover from the wind. Now that I'm back from the lunch break I'm having a mental break down due to the fact that the squirel eating a carot (thanks MC!) was the highlight of my day.

That and afternoon iced coffee with the same co-worker. We have to stick together in order to survive this place : (

ps
My new phone (that I love) has the worst camera!!

Whoa...we're getting old

2008-05-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well, my wife and I 'celebrated' our five year anniversary this past weekend. For the last six months we had been thinking of grand plans on how to spend our long weekend together. We could not make a decision on what to do, which turns out to have been a blessing. Instead of spending a nice romantic weekend together, I got to take care of sick wife, including a fun-filled visit to our local ER after she was unable to keep anything in her system. The highlight was me giggling like a schoolgirl when EVERY nurse asked is she was preggers. hahhahahaha

Weekly Update

2008-05-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates (for the two stalkers, I mean readers). It's been a crazy week.

Last weekend instead of finishing up the pond and starting on the patio, we bought new furniture for the patio, which has found random places inside the house to reside until it has somewhere outside to go to. Here's a sample pic...

For some odd reason World Market had the set on sale last weekend and informed us they would not be getting any new ones in. Made the decision very easy since my lovely wife had already decided this is what she wanted.

There has been progress made...the electric line is installed outside and just needs to be connected to the breaker box. As a side, Home Depot returned my call today (two and a half weeks after my call to them) to get an estimate to do this work for me. I'm becoming less and less impressed with the big orange box.

I've also the got the waterfall complete on the pond and should have a pic of that this weekend with water and plants in it! We're very much looking forward to the sweet sound of running water in the backyard soon...and the reaction Phoebe will have to it!!Of course my wife already has an idea of what she wants to have in the pond...

I love Peking

2008-05-20T14:28:00.001-07:00

On Sunday we went to this great little Chinese place with some friends. We had a wonderful time with awesome food...which was followed by the most awesome fortune cookies ever. My wife opened hers first, then could not stop laughing. She is not a very animated person, so I knew it must of been a good one. I kept my mouth shut after reading mine waiting for hers to be passed around the table (she couldn't read it outloud!).

"A romantic evening awaits you tonight."

Thank you Mr. Chinese Fortune Cookie Man, you are my new hero : )

Things got a little out of control...with my wife in tears...after reading my fortune.

"Your skills and talents will be called on in unusual areas."

I seriously looked around the resturant looking for Ashton Kutcher and the Punk'd team to come out.

Pond Update

2008-05-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

More delays in getting the pond finished up. My parents stopped by this past weekend so that my Dad could help me run an electric line out to the retaining wall in our backyard so I could plug in the new fish pond pump. After some debate, it was decided that it would be best if I dug a trench in the yard to bury the line rather then running it through the crawl space (which would have involved giant me in a three foot high crawl space for hours after drilling a hole in the foundation). Turns out that digging a 70' trench is very time consuming and causes sore muscles! Who would have guessed!! Then of course, by the time it was completed, the rain started again! Hopefully one evening this week I will be able to get the entire electric portion of this project complete so I can get back to finishing up these projects!

In case your wondering, the electric line had to be put in now because soon we will start construction of our new patio...which will go over top where the electric line needed to be installed. Pics will some soon.

Random Acts of Corporate Generosity

2008-05-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

Two different experiences with two different companies have left me baffled. The first, on Saturday afternoon was at a car dealership...of all places! I stopped by the parts desk to purchase some touch up paint for my wife's new car. I was fully expecting this to set me back a Hamilton and was perfectly content doing so. Until the guy behind the desk handed me the bottle and said that'll take care of ya. I tried to purchase it but he insisted there would be no charge. 'Okay, well thanks, have a great weekend.' The stranger part of the entire scenario was that this was not the dealer we purchased the car from two weeks ago (I was also awkwardly dodging the salesperson who tried to 'give me the best deal').

Then this afternoon, I called Verizon to ask the status of them coming to fix my Fios line that I cut over the weekend (more on that soon). After being on hold a couple of minutes, the nice gentleman comes back on the line and asks if I'm still having trouble because his system is telling him a repair guy has already come out and fixed the line and his computer is able to talk to the odd Verizon box in my garage. Alrighty then. No charge. Huh? I break the line, make you guys come fix it and you'll pick up the tab too? Okay, as if I needed another reason to be in love with you!

Big Plans

2008-05-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

What to do? I had these ambitious plans to finish up the fish pond (which I've been saying for weeks...darn rain) and get a good head start on the new patio this week. My lovely wife is out of town on business until Friday. But it's raining (again!)...which is a good thing for my grass and flower beds, but bad news for me.

I'm bored. Sure, I could clean the house to impress my wife upon her return. It's only Monday though and I'm sure the dogs and I will make it more messy by the time Friday comes around. I'm becoming more high maintence as I age. After marriage I realized how I need people around. When my wife is out of town, I tend to get sad, bored, just down in general. So I plan out big projects to keep myself entertained, have a sense of accomplishment (I should write a whole post on that topic), and most importantly, out of trouble! Guys, women know everything. Never doubt that!

I may just have to drive her new car around all evening to entertain myself until the sun returns tomorrow :-)

Personal Finance

2008-05-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

I am in love with Personal Finance Blogs. I've been silently reading a number of them for over a year now. I'm still in debate over what all I will share on this blog. There has to be some balance between privacy and sharing useful information that might help a reader out. I think for now I'm going to work on showing a monthly Net Worth update (which I track already anyway) in percentage form and somehow do the same with our monthly budget (again, already keep track of this info).

Any thoughts?

Lack of Sleep

2008-05-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

I love spring. It comes second to only fall (which has birthdays and Hokie football). Spring hates me. For the past month I have been sucking down any and all medication to try and alleviate the constant sinus headache, sneezing, itchy eyes, etc that lovely spring brings. Of course being the stubborn mule (or maybe just male?) that I am, I refuse to stop driving home from work with all the windows down and sunroof open, stop doing yardwork when everything has a greenish-yellow haze to it, or really do anything at all that the nice allergy doc told me to stop doing years ago. One day I will give in...

The other part of spring that I have a love/hate relationship with are thunderstorms. I love the smell in the air after a good storm has passed through. And more lately it means less days I have to spend watering everything in our yard...to which the county dislikes because I think they thoroughly enjoyed sending me those water bills last year. Since Phoebe came into our lives three years ago, thunderstorms have taken on a new meaning. Thunderstorms now mean we have a manic hyperactive poodle mix clawing at anything or everything that might help give her comfort. Last night we had thunderstorms throughout the night. Which meant Phoebe got locked in her crate (don't judge, it was NECESSARY!). The first few hours she clawed at the wall under our bed. Then tried to sleep on our heads. Poor little thing just doesn't like storms. I blame Fourth of July 2005...one day I'll share that story!

So here we are with a lack of sleep and some random ramblings to kick off this Friday morning...as the rain starts up again.

Fish Pond

2008-05-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks I have been working on putting a fish pond in our back yard. This has been a lofty dream of mine for some time now. Before now we haven't stayed put in one place long enough to warrant the expense of a project like this.

As you can see, the pond is still not complete, but it is looking like a pond! I decided to pour concrete for the pond instead of using a preformed pond or a pond liner. There were many reasons for this and while I am very pleased with the result, next time I'll use a plastic liner instead! It took 12 bags of 80lb concrete to make this small pond...all mixed by hand in a bucket. Needless to say, my back was sore for a few days!

Hopefully next week this little project will be complete...after the waterfall is installed, concrete sealed, and plants planted. Phoebe can't wait until she can play with the fishies!!

Getting started

2008-05-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of blogs for some time now...I'll put up some links of my favs one day soon...and I've decided to give it a whurl. Unfortunately for you all, I have a wide variety of random interests, so try to keep up!