Explanation

I have finally gotten around to reading Atlas Shrugged which is supposedly Ayn Rand's (my favorite author) crowing achievement. I have to say, one third of the way through it, I am impressed...

Money Diatribe

Money is only a tool. it will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. it will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has not concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgement , ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the chats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money.

-Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged

Limited Resources

There comes a time in your life, when there just isn't enough time in the day for everything you have jammed into your life. At this point, the fun process of prioritizing comes into play. Which friends do you allocate time for? And why is it that friends are sometimes the only thing negotiable in your to do list? It feels extremely sad that relationships with other human beings do not have the same urgency of other items on our lists.

Culinary Delight

I found it extremely difficult to get motivated to do anything on my day off, so I chose to do things not on my to do list for the day. First I went to the grocery, then picked up a friend and went searching for essential oils and was only minorly distracted by cranberry maple granola. Then we went to my house and made gazpacho, hummus, a spinach salad, pork chops and brown rice. Then we made a peach raspberry pie. Now that I can say that I didn't blow my whole day I can go to bed with a clear conscience. It has been a while since I cooked for the sheer joy of cooking. Ah, a glimpse of what my life could be like...

Graduation Rant

So I decided to graduate this summer instead of next January because I don't think I want to go to Miami a week away from my due date. I submitted the change of program paperwork and my application for graduation which was due May 29th. I believe I had all of this turned in on Wednesday. Sunday night I get a 'mail undeliverable' email saying That my application for graduation had been returned to me because a Kaplan email address marked an email coming from a Kaplan student account as spam. Now I can't resubmit the paperwork because the date is past and they won't answer their phone! What do I do?

Anniversary thoughts

Rob and I just celebrated our four year anniversary this past week. We also found out that we were going to be parents this past week. At dinner celebrating both having made it four years and finally getting started on our family, we talked about how we thought we were doing on the joint five year plan we made when we got married. For the most part we have done fairly well on our list of shared goals. Some items didn't happen the way we thought they would. For example, we had both wanted to have 'real' jobs. We both still work for the company we worked for when we got married, but Rob has moved up in the company to an office position and I have stayed because of the flexibility it allows me to pursue my degree and get our company up and running. We also discussed where we wanted to be five more years from now.

I think it is very important in a marriage to set joint goals. I have known couples that both have five year plans that are independent of the other... What happens if you reach your goals and you weren't working towards the same thing? It ends up pulling you apart! On the other hand, when the two of you are pulling together towards a shared purpose, you are more likely to succeed than on your own and when you get there, you will end up in the same place as your spouse.

Where were we supposed to be by May of next year?
Have finished master's degree (me)
Have started grad school (Rob)
Have our own home
Have real jobs
Have started planning for retirement
Have started a family

Our first two goals have to do with finishing our education. I will graduate in July of this year with my MBA, then return to finish my concentration area (March hopefully). Rob is a little behind on his as we had to be sure we were staying somewhere for two or three years before he could apply for grad school. He is looking at masters programs locally and thinking about studying for the GRE.

The next three goals had to do with gaining financial and geographic stability so that we could...start a family without worrying about money on top of the stress and excitement of a baby. While we haven't bought a house yet, we have made it out of apartment complexes.

The next five years will hopefully bring a couple more kids, a house of our own, my sister and I's company taking off. Rob hopes to be working with either the military or on an international level in his company and have finished his master's degree. I hope and pray that wherever we end up we can find a church family that feels like home. The Lord has kept us so far. We have a good life and it has been an amazing four years together!

Road Trip (Part III)

Due to much complaining that there were no pictures of me...here is one of the few pics taken on vacation that has me in it...

Interference

I won't be on here for a couple weeks due to school and life in general interfering with my Internet time. My apologies... As far as updates go, I got a call back from a firm I applied to so I might be joining the adult world and getting a real job sometime this summer. I have planted part of my plants for the summer. My house is finally starting to look good on a consistent basis. I got enough veggies from the store to make seven or eight excellent soups over the next couple weeks so we should be eating good for a little bit at least. I managed to survive Mother's day at the restaurant without yelling at anyone or hurting myself. I'm exhausted and can't wait till my next school break...seven weeks and one day, not that I'm counting the days. I miss my social life and will hopefully emerge sometime in the near future a stronger and better person for the experience. I think Rob has made the top of my hit list for encouraging the going back to school madness...

Doctors and the Like

Having been sick since Thursday...NOT with swine flu as everyone keeps asking...I agreed to go to the doctor if I didn't feel better today. I woke up this morning and for the first time in five days, I could breathe. Relieved that I wasn't going to have to take time out of my busy day for a doctor's appointment, I got up and started getting ready. Then I looked in the mirror and decided that maybe I should go to the doctor after all. A quick search of WebMD confirmed my suspicions and I was off to see a very excited doctor who "had never seen a case this bad before!" Really, could you contain your excitement at least a little bit? Then a whole lot of phone tag to find someone to cover my shift. Apparently I have pink eye, which normally wouldn't bother me too much, but she told me to throw away my toothbrush, contacts, and wash my sheets and towels. For the record, my project for last Sunday was the bathroom and bedroom. I just changed the sheets two days ago, my toothbrush and contacts are two days old... It hurts a little to throw away three month lenses that have been worn once. Oh well. The bright side is I have the night off, so I should have plenty of time to get my homework done.

Road Trip (Part II)

These pictures are from days two and three of our trip. On those two days, we went from Albany, NY to Saratoga Springs, NY to Green Mountain National Forest in VT, to Montpelier and Burlington, VT to Concord, NH. We finally stopped north of Portland, ME at the end of the third day.

This picture is of the Capitol building in Albany, NY. It is the only state house in the country that does not have a dome.
This shot was of the skylight at the top of the million dollar staircase in the capitol building.


A very cool old fashioned lift.

A waterfall with a restaurant overlooking it in Quechee, VT.

The bridge over Quechee Gorge in VT.


The view from the bridge over Quechee Gorge. We hiked about a quarter of the way down in before the snow and ice and our inappropriate footwear forced us to turn back (apparently sneakers aren't the best choice for hiking downhill in snow...).

Stay tuned for pictures from Acadia National Park...

Road Trip (Part I)

I shot twenty rolls of film on our great Northeastern road trip. As I foresee this week being less busy, I will try to pick a couple of my favorites from each roll for your viewing pleasure.

April 1, 2009

This roll was shot in Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY on day one of our trip. It rained the entire day, and most of our photography took place while negotiating an umbrella or through car windows. This first shot was at Presque Isle State Park. We had debated not going to see this lighthouse as we thought we would see a bunch in Maine, but it turned out that by the time we got to Maine, we were behind schedule and didn't get to see any after all so I am glad that we saw this one.

This one is of a windmill in Erie itself. I just liked how simple the picture was.

The next photo, off of roll 2 was taken in Buffalo, NY. For the most part Buffalo struck me as a dirty city, but they did have some beautiful architecture.

I thought this shot looked like it could have been taken 70 years ago if you ignore the shiny modern building in the top middle left of the picture.

This one was taken in Rochester, NY at the George Eastman museum of Photography, which incidentally had some amazing photo opportunities. All of my pictures from there turned out amazing, but this was the only one that had any color in it. After 30 hours of rain, it was nice to see something bright.

I took this picture on the road leaving Syracuse, NY. It was the only sunshine we saw all day and it lasted for about 45 seconds before we were flattened by another thunderstorm. If you look very very closely at the picture you will see the relatively tiny storm system off in the distance. (Actually by the time I had snapped the picture and had one foot back in the car it was pouring).

Ahhh

Yesterday we painted the office. You know you have good friends when you say I'm painting the office this weekend and they ask if they can help. We left the chocolate accent wall and painted over the gold sponge painted walls with a nice taupe. We painted the trim an off white and hung curtains. We cleaned, we rearranged and changed the outlets. It is a completely different room. I worked in the office the entire day today without being distracted by piles of paperwork or anything else. Thank you so much guys! You have given me a peaceful haven to do my work in. I am sure at some point I will get the opportunity to return the favor :)

What I'm excited about

I get my vacation pictures back tomorrow! My office might actually get painted this weekend and I might get to see my friend this weekend! The only downer is that my hubby has drill and will be gone all weekend...

I'm not dead

I'm not dead, just busy. I finally got around to taking my first real vacation in almost four years last week. Monica and I went on a road trip to Maine. We had an awesome time hitting the capitals of every state in the northeast. In my opinion the two best places we saw by far were Acadia National Park and downtown Boston. Cape Cod won the best food award and Montpelier won the most pathetic state capitol award. Columbus had the worst capital building, Albany and Harrisburg, PA the best. New York's senators gave us a new perspective on the character (and pettiness) of politicians, Concord's representatives showed that politicians can be civilized. We hiked the cliffs of Acadia and walked the historic Boston downtown, went to the Culinary Institute of America, camped in Vermont (cold!), touched our toes in the ocean, watched the tide come in, looked at more than a few boats, encountered a little blizzard in PA and 70 degree weather in NY, ate a lobster, oysters, crab cakes, clams, scallops, clam chowder, lobster bisque, shrimp, trout, tuna, and some amazing crab avocado mango terrine. All I can say is wow and I'm exhausted. I should have pictures developed in a week or so and I will try to post some.

Status Update

Taxes are done! Check! A whole month early too...

The house is looking good on a consistent basis and my best friend is coming to town! Its almost my birthday and my husband has been able to keep a secret up till now. What am I doing on my birthday?...I don't know.

Taxes

Now usually, I am pretty good about getting taxes done in an non-last-minute sort of style. I have had them done as early as Valentine's Day before. Last year, however, was not my shining moment of togetherness. In March, my sister got married, then I had finals, then I started packing for our early April move. I couldn't find all my tax documents out of the boxes in time so I filed an extension. Last minute again, in June, I finally did my taxes, e-filed them and waited patiently for the direct deposit to post to my account. I got a strange check in the mail a couple weeks later that was not for the same amount as my refund from a bank I had never heard of and had one of those weird disclaimers attached to it like if you cash this check you are certifying this loan. I burned the check. Two months later and no refund yet, I called the IRS. Turns out one of the routing numbers was wrong and the check I burned was my refund. To get it reissued, we had to have a form notarized and by November, I finally had my tax check.

Now this year, hopefully we can avoid all the fuss and get it right the first time, which I will be attempting tonight. I really hate doing taxes...

Give that Girl a Twinkie!

"My body is a temple and sometimes my temple wants cheesecake."

Catch Up

I finally got a chance to get online and catch up on a bunch of stuff, bills, correspondence, my business, email, reading how everyone is doing. I am in an accounting class which is thoroughly kicking my butt, probably because I want to learn it as well as possible because this is what I want to be when I grow up...I think. So pretty much I go online to do my postings and spend the rest of the day split into three persons which attempt to keep up with the rest of my life. I dreamed last night that while I slept, two of me got up...one was cleaning my house, and the other was doing my homework. I was rudely awakened by Brandi, telling me that it was 6.45 and we needed to go to the doctor. She found it very funny when they said they could squeeze me in at 7.45 and I asked "A.M?" with horror. I am very much looking forward to my April vacation, it couldn't come soon enough.

My Band

Here is my album cover from my band's first album. This was a lot of fun.

Rules

Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RandomThe first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.
Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7daysThird picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.(If you spend more than 5 minutes, you're doing it wrong.)

Band name @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snabba_cash

Quotation

What if there is a ruling that, uh, you cannot apply civil penalties to, uh, practicing sodomites?----Howard Phillips

Book List

So I am supposed to be compiling a list of books one should read if one wants to be considered a 'well read' individual. This list will also be the reading list for my children in middle and high school. I am taking suggestions...if you have a must read classic let me know!