Friday, January 25, 2008

Successful week!


Here's a recap of my week in relation to my goals:

Successes!
I ran 7 miles this week, and might do another mile tomorrow.

I lifted once, and am lifting tomorrow morning.

I woke up early twice - once for Breakfast meeting, once to work out.

I had one drink on Thursday as part of a going-away celebration for a coworker. Not that we want her to go away....but you get the picture.

I got the number of this girl that I'm into at a local hot spot. (Do people even say "hot spot" anymore?)

Setbacks
I hurt my triceps lifting. I'll take it easy on them tomorrow.

I stayed up too late 2 out of 4 nights.

I forgot to pay one of my bills.

All in all, a successful week! Work was extremely busy and taxing, but I felt all the other things I tried to fit in went well - they didn't stress me out. I think that's a good sign I can continue to keep them going without burning out. Here's to as good or better week next week for all of us!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Short post, tired muscles.

Loooooooooong day at work. I got off work, ran a mile, and lifted for about an hour. Yea for me. Early to bed tonight for Breakfast club tomorrow. We'll try again to run in the morning!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Today's accomplishments

So, I was up late last night. I decided I was going to kick today's ass, tired or not. I had an unbelievably productive day at work, followed by a 1.5 mile run/walk, stretching, sit-ups, back exercises, unloading the dishwasher, and a jaunt to the grocery store. I was feeling so chipper, I bought a mango. Say it with me. Mango.

Right now, I have that kind of feeling that if I attempted just about anything, I'd be successful. Too bad tonight's activities only include eating dinner, doing laundry, and ironing tomorrow's clothes. Oh oh, and I might even make tomorrow's lunch tonight. Why can't I have had a date planned for tonight or something? Ceteris paribus, que sera, sera.

Take that, day!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Dear Loyal and Intelligent readers...

I'm having a difficult going to bed on time. I just looked at the clock, and my assertion is confirmed - it is 1:29 AM. Why am I awake right now? There is nothing good on TV, I'm not doing anything, and there certainly isn't a supermodel in my bed keeping me from slumbering. I kicked her out hours ago...

Anyone have any tips or tricks that don't involve sedatives? I need to be cognizant when I wake up. I don't think I have insomnia - I think I have "too lazy to go to bed" syndrome. For those of you who have the ability to use a scroll bar, you'll see from a previous post establishing a morning routine is one of my goals in 2008. Going to bed on time, as you might imagine, is the one single thing that would really help me move this goal along. I'm open to suggestions!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Specifics

So, I've nailed down some specifics in the finance area:

MOHELA: $7,321.95 @ 9% = $78/month
Direct Loan: $4,238.57 @ 7.22% = $65/month
AG Loan: $6,776.52 @ 9.990% = $204/month
Credit card: $1,544.36 @ 11.99% =?/month

Alright. There ya are. All my debt - excluding my mortgage. Now, I need a plan to kick that debt in the debt-hole. What's the plan? Well first, I need to refi that AG loan through the City of Columbia. For those of you who don't know, I feel like I'm now officially a homeowner as I had to install all new heating and cooling in my house. Ductwork, heat pump, furnace, A/C, etc. Awesome times. Apparently people don't just give you those things for free if you're freezing in your home. Interesting.

At any rate, I have enough cash on hand to knock out the credit card debt in a month or two. No worries there. Then, it's going in the freezer. Really. After that, I think I can refi the heat loan through the City at 2-3% interest. Thank God the City is liberally green. They provide low-interest loans for these type of home improvements. Thanks Al Gore.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm not crumbling under the weight of monthly payments. I can afford the current rates, but surely there is a better way, right? Combine them all at a low rate? Use the Snowball Repayment Method? Get another job? :)

If you don't have any recommendations, maybe you can at least commiserate with me?

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Thursday mornings

My first song recommendation this post is a Josh Ritter song(s). This guy is amazing. If you aren't listening to him, you should be! So, check out my favorite -- "Good Man." You may know his new single "To the Dogs or Whoever," or give a close listen to one with some haunting lyrics - "The Temptation of Adam." The end of the world has never sounded so beautiful.


So, one of the things I've begun in 2008 is meeting up with a couple of friends for breakfast on Thursday mornings. We've had 2 meetings so far and I enjoy them. This is helping me establish my morning routines and we end up having insightful conversation. 1st meeting was about our goals for 2007. I think it helps to have people know what you're trying to accomplish - it makes me feel accountable to others besides just myself. Second meeting we talked about FairTax - heady, exciting stuff ;) It's a great concept - get paid your entire paycheck, pay taxes only on consumption on new items - but can it garner enough interest from people to convince our politicians to commit resources for a real analysis of it's efficacy? Who knows.

That's all for now. Enjoy the tunes, excuse my ramblings.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

5 little ditties

Well, in previous social forums (Myspace, Facebook), I'd type out some new music recommendations. I figured an easy blog to get me in the spirit here would be to share with you all some of the songs running though my iTunes playlist lately. They may not be really new, but they are new to me. Hopefully they'll be new and good to you!

Ben Harper - "Fool for a Lonesome Train"
Great song - pretty chill, but it has a lot of emotion behind it.

Shelby Lynne - "Evil Man"
Nice simple, dirty blues song. dig.

Rufus Wainwright - "Across the Universe"
Yeah, it's a Beatles cover, but Rufus does it right. Really interesting.

Hope Waits - "Get Behind the Mule"
Where did this gal come from ? She's awesome...

The Real Tuesday Meld - "I Believe"
How can you not like a crazy song with lyrics like "I believe in anything if I believe that you believe in love." It's not a sappy song either. Check it out. Quirky

There you are - 5 little ditties.