Welcome to July

Wow – where did June go?!

  • Just paid rent and parking for July…amazing how much I don’t have left after I write those two checks!
  • Looking forward to getting my panorama frames in the mail so that I can finally put up the Disney photos.
  • Amazingly after having a horrendously motivated weekend, I didn’t write crap for the past five days…with the exception of blog entries here and there.
  • I need to force myself to write at least one column before I go to bed tonight. The site’s starting to look really great…just need to get off my butt and finish things up.
  • Work was very good today, and should be fun tomorrow also. Crap seems to be happening to other people for a change instead of hitting me directly, and although I do feel bad for them, I’m glad that it’s targeting someone else for a while… 😛
  • Right now I need a weekend that can be both relaxing andproductive…is that even possible?
  • Must find time for Disneyland documentary this weekend that Bob loaned me.
  • No work on Monday. Don’t know where I’m going to go watch 4th of July fireworks yet. At this point, I’d give anything to just go to the beach and watch the sunset with Leslie…

more quotables from the archives…

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

— Babe Ruth
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That is assult, not leadership.”

— Dwight Eisenhower
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

— Francis Bacon

Lowe’s is my new best friend…

See – that’s what you get for being raised in the sheltered midwest!

I went into my first Lowe’s today and I’ve got to say, I really see no reason to ever go back to Home Depot again! You see, I’ve always been stuck on Home Depot because that’s all we had up north and when I got here, I just never bothered to even consider the alternatives.

Well, today I’m certainly glad that I did because in twenty minutes, I managed to find the plexiglass for my panoramas that has been eluding me for weeks, a really cool tropical-style ceiling fan with palm frond blades that will fit perfectly in the prospective bedroom decorating plans, and even cat5 wall mounts so that I can wire the entire house for gigabit ethernet!

Now all I need is the actual house itself… 😛

how much is TOO MUCH?!

[Disclaimer: don’t read as far into this as your gossipy, little hearts want to – it’s not exactly time to take that step yet, at least as far as I know…]

So we were talking at work the other day and quite the interesting discussion topic came up – “How much should a man spend on his bride-to-be’s engagement / wedding ring?” Of course, the female opinions were all on one side of the table with the guys on the other – we heard everything from two months’ salary to “a couple grand, at the most” to one guy whose girlfriend had already set her heart on a $30,000 rock… 😛

I guess I’m torn about this one and maybe I’ll have a slightly different opinion when I get closer to actually making such a decision, but from my perspective – as I’m just completing a two year effort to pay off five years’ worth of credit card debt and looking to soon sink that newfound income into the purchase of a house – is that it doesn’t make sense to enter into a marriage with someone and already have that kind of additional weight over one’s head. Now don’t get me wrong, she still deserves a nice ring and all, but when you’re talking about price tags that could also represent the down payment or closing costs on a new house, it kind of makes you stop and think – two months’ salary is a lot of cash!

LOL – we also decided that if following the “two months” rule, second and third jobs don’t count and you’re allowed to figure off of your net earnings instead of the gross…yes, have calculator, will geek out…

I read a couple of articles stating that some men…and women…agree that you can’t live in a ring, or drive a ring to the beach, or take summer vacations to the ring, and thus they had agreed together on a set amount to be spent that fit within their budget. While I think that this kind of takes away from the surprise of the whole moment if she already helped to pick the thing out, it might be easier than overspending and then getting in trouble later for putting the new family too deep into debt. And then again, I do believe that this same article can be quoted as saying that our “two months” should be comprised of the man’s and the woman’s monthly salaries combined and I just can’t see that one happening, so maybe that’s what you get for looking to the Internet for advice!

I want to hear some other opinions, especially if you’re somebody who’s already made this purchase! The only people who already had rings and would admit how much they cost were sure to throw in that their husbands had spent considerably more than two months’, so is this just one where us guys have to bite the bullet and commit to eating Ramen for a while or is there a little more leeway than what’s already been spelled out???

freezingly frustrated…

No matter what setting I change the dial inside the fridge to, I end up with a glass containing one large block of ice as opposed to the ice water that I’ve come to know and love in its liquid form.

It’s been fun, but more and more things that I once tolerated around here are starting to annoy – the teeny, tiny fridge, the “not necessarily leaking” air conditioner, the dryer that hums unless you stand there and hold enough pressure on the door to keep the seal. Between you and me, the end of this summer isn’t going to come fast enough!