2 years ago tomorrow.....

So, I've neglected this blog for one whole entire year. They blocked it at work, but I found a loophole through a link, so here goes. My post from almost exactly 2 years ago had some goals in it and I've decided to check in on them and make some new ones

And the goals for 08 were:
1. Update the blog regularly - I never think what I do is exciting, but someone might, right? I should also put pictures on it. Which brings me to.... this clearly was an epic fail
2. Take pictures - I have a camera for a reason, but I don't take many pictures anymore. I should also find a sight to host them too. well my old camera's batteries would die within an hour of replacing them so picture taking was curtailed. i've recently got a fancy new camera, which i love. so now i need to be more diligent about posting them.
3. Get in shape - I plan to get a personal trainer with my year end bonus money. Hopefully this will work! I've already spoken to the guy and we are going to set up a schedule after the new year. Ever since high school (which is now officially 10 years ago) my body has been in miserable shape. No matter what whether my weight is up or down, none of it is ever muscle. this i actually did. it was really good but too expensive to keep up.
4. Run a marathon - I've never been much of a runner, but if # 3 works out, # 4 should be less hard. check one off the bucket list. i ran a marathon. 11/14/09 in richmond VA
5. Eat less candy - I'm a sucker for sweets like hard candy, skittles, twizlers, etc. there is a bag of salt water taffy on my desk
6. Eat fish - the smell bothers me, so I refuse to eat it. I don't like the mushy texture. I hear it can be tasty and good for you, so maybe I should give it a whirl! just no.
7. Get my licenses - my financial licenses, that is. I have the series 7 test scheduled for february, so we'll see what happens from there didn't pass the series 7, but that's OK. i realize that i don't want to be in finance anyway. this leads to another goal
8. Visit a place that requires a passport - it's been 27 years and I have yet to travel abroad. Maybe this will be the year! not exactly yet, but i have tickets in hand to go to Sweden/Germany and possibly do a side trip to England scheduled for February

The new '10 goals for the new decade will be:

1. Go to another continent, not Europe. Some day, I would like to visit every habitable continent with Antarctica as a stretch goal. That can be a decade goal. I can't imagine doing that in one year.
2. Run a marathon with a time goal. Last one I "just" finished. Meaning I had crossing the finish line alive in mind. It took 5 hours 30 minutes. I'd like to get it down to 4 hours 30 minutes. Difficult, but not impossible. Still an hour too slow to qualify for Boston.
3. Lose that last pesky 20 pounds. Last year I lost 20 pounds. I'd like to lose another 15 or 20. It would probably help with goal 3.
4. Get into law school. I'm taking the LSAT in February, so if I can get into school that would be very nice.
5. Save some money. Like a significant amount. For what? I don't know. Probably that non-Europe trip I would like to take.
6. Eat out less. I have a feeling that this would help with both goals 3 and 5. For some reason, I have it in my head that Friday and Saturday night are for eating out. Even if it's nothing special. Maybe I should learn to cook more things and make it special that way.

So, That's it for now! Hopefully I will check in before one year from now

bad blogger

what a bad blogger I am. Have I made good on the post I made at the end of 07 about adding more pictures? NOPE!
I blame laziness, but I also blame the camera itself. The camera kills batteries faster than I can take any pictures.
I really want a new camera. I bought the current 4 mega pixels powershot a couple years ago with best buy gift certificates, and christmas money and some of my own money too. I got it in New Hampshire, tax free. It was maybe $300.00 and it's now archaic!. For the same price, I could get this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8791097&type=product&id=1205537513525

I would like to be a good photographer. I'd like a digital SLR but I also don't want to spend the money if the camera fascination is a passing fancy.

Hopefully 2009 will be a better year for pictures!!!

Kristen - Do Gooder

I have been volunteered to be in charge of the "Morgan Stanley Annual Appeal." Basically, what that is, is MS's giving campaign. Morgan Stanley has the Morgan Stanley Foundation, if you donate to that, they will match you 100% and give you what they call a "CSA" or charitable spending account and I can donate that matched money where ever I'd like it to go. You can also pick a charity/organization of your choice, but they only match 25% into your CSA. Another nice thing is that you can have it deducted directly from your paycheck. Either all from one check, or a little from every check.

I've decided to give some money to the Morgan Stanley fund (just for the match) Sacred Heart University's political science department, and some animal-related fund; either FONZ (friends of the national zoo) or WWF (world wildlife fund).

However, if anyone has a suggestion for a charity with a good cause, I can be persuaded to change one of these.

I was also asked to monitor the canned food box. I made the above sign with sharpies and a picture of campbell's soup that I printed from some website.

Not that I have a large readership on this blog, I'm going to take a moment to stand on a soap box and tell everyone to donate time or money to a cause you believe in, whatever it may be.

hooray for "cheap" gas

I remember, (and this was a few years ago), very specifically the first time I paid over $2.00 for gas. I even remember the station. I was MAD! I also remeber paying over $30 for a full tank. Again I was upset.

This morning, I filled up my tank. It wasn't quite empty, but the light had just gone on maybe a mile before I got to the station. I filled the tank for $26.00 and thought "is this right? it can't be". I checked the sign, it said $2.59. And I thought, "should that be $3.59?". Nope. $2.59 was right. Yay for the little things!


Anyway, We moved into the new place. It's sort of in shambles. We successfully put together the IKEA dressers. They are pretty stable. Yay as well :-)

the good and the bad

i'll start with the bad since it's always nice to end on a good note. As everyone knows, the stockmarket is tanking big time. Not that I have all that much to lose, but as I work in a financial institution, it's depressing. Clients call in, and everything is Doom and Gloom. Every transaction is the end of the world. It's a little hectic and I'm not particuarly upset about the market, but the attitudes are weighing me down. Today was particularly bad.
I decided to go get my oil (car) changed and the dealership said that it would take a half hour, so I thought OK that is perfect. It took a lot longer than I expected, and I got snide comments when I got back. It sucks because people take longer lunches all the time, I just took one at a particularly bad time. So maybe I F-ed up a little, or had bad timing, but when I got back I made a trade error. Fixable, but still made me frazzled. One of my brokers is in Aruba, and clients are crazy wondering where he is. I can't tell them he's in Aruba, that's just not right. People in suits are sprinting in the halls! It's madness.

Today I got an email from Lucie saying how much she loves her new job and how happy it makes her. It made me think. It's MISERABLE here, especially the last few weeks. But it's true that you can love your job. I want that. I should have that. I need to take steps to have that!!!

On the upside, it's 4:00 on a friday and the weekend is just about here! The real upside is that Dan and I have a new place to live!!!!! It is a nice townhouse in Fairfax, VA. 3 floors. 3.5 bathrooms. I can't wait to paint and decorate. I believe closing should be next week!

Another upside is that gas prices are going down and so is the Euro. Maybe I can finally put that passport to use.

so....

So we put in an offer on the house with a loft in the bedroom. No go! The lady wouldn't even make a counter offer. Looks like it's back to the drawing board. I can't imagine why she wouldn't counter! Her price or no house. That doesn't make any sense. Oh well, maybe it wasn't meant to be and there's something better out there.

So...I'm definitely a bad blogger.
My last blog entry said that I would blog more. Since that entry was from June, I have obviously failed. And that picture thing....I haven't even taken any pictures!!!

Over the summer, Dan and I have been looking for a house (a townhouse actually) to purchase. This weekend, I think we finally found one. It's 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms (I want to build another one in the already finished basement). It could use some TLC, in the kitchen, the cabinets and counters look older, but cosmetic stuff is fixable. What I like the most is that the master bedroom has a decent sized loft. I would love to make it into a little library. I could get some book shelves and one of those Love Sac things http://www.lovesac.com/supersac.asp. I also can't wait to paint and decorate.