Crazy!!

Yesterday we went over to the Aquatic Gardens in northeast DC to wander around and take some photographs. To get there you have to go through a slightly stabby residential neighborhood, but it's not usually a problem - especially at 11am on a Saturday morning.

Driving down Douglas St NE, on the left there were two people working curbside out of the back of a van. It looked like they were cutting some wood with a table saw; on the porch of the house several people were sitting and hanging out. As we drove by I glanced over and caught the eye of one of the guys working the table saw. His look was friendly but neutral, which is interesting because most often I get the death stare from people in neighborhoods like this.

I was contemplating the lack of death stare, J said, "Does that guy have a gun? He has a gun!" I whipped around to take a look at the guy calmly jogging across the street in front of our car. I didn't see anything at first - my eyes were looking for a black handgun - and then I saw the RIFLE he was holding to his side! What?!

I immediately tried to call the police but, even though we were in DC, the call went to the Prince George's County 911 service who did not pick up!! I got a call back right away but by that time J had already tried to call, received a callback, answered, and was giving our location and description to the dispatcher.

Wow! How weird was that. We heard sirens right away but I'm sure that the kid was already inside the apartment building by the time units responded, and I'm equally sure that none of the residents or porch-dwellers wanted to give helpful guidance to the police.

We did end up having a nice time at the gardens, however. Here are some photos:









After we wiped ourselves out we went down to the wharf, bought a dozen crabs (plus five the guy threw in), had them steamed with lots of Old Bay, and ate them on top of a pile of newspapers at the marina, chugging cokes and sucking on our fingers where the spices get inside little cuts made from handling the crab claws. It stings!

Day o'Chores

I have gotten a lot done today!

1. I passed the DC motorcycle knowledge test and now have my green-tinted learner's permit. The next step is to get a scooter and take the skills test so I can ride fully legally. Yay!

2. I got rid of my smart phone that gave me nothing but trouble and downgraded to a simple flip phone. I cut my bill, and my headaches, in half. Who needs a cell phone that's more computer than phone? Not me. I'm happy for the return to simplicity.

3. I practiced yoga. It's been going well lately... I feel strong and far less jiggly when I run. What more can a woman want :)

Photos

So I got the best present for my birthday - a Nikon D5000 SLR camera. And I have been having a blast. Here are a few from my flower collection:









Okay so I threw in a cactus and a mushroom, whatev ;-)

Long Week

This week has been so long that I just posted this entry to a blog I created to post a photo so I could edit it. That was a year ago and I've never used the temp blog since. How I mangaged to update that one instead of this one... who knows... anyway!

I've been able to pick up some overtime tonight which is a really nice treat, especially since I am trying to eradicate the remainder of my student loans in about three years. But it makes for some very long days and short evenings.

Today I worked from 6:30am to 6pm, got home, chopped a few veggies to roast and showered while they were doing their thing... threw them over some greens with oil and vinegar, drank a glass of cheap wine, watched one TV sit-com, and am ready for BED!

I have no idea how people do this sort of thing with kids, getting an additional degree at night, dealing with yardwork, etc.

I've been dying to continue taking photographs this week but it's been rainy and overcast and gross outside. I'm hoping for a nice weekend and some good shots to post! Stay tuned!

July Savings Round-Up and Misc.

Wow, I haven't blogged in a while. Heartfelt apologies to my faithful readers. July was an odd month for a number of reasons (turning 30 anyone?) and the savings round-up will reflect that. I think two weeks went by with no grocery shopping, which means that budget category was at rock bottom but coffee shops and eating out were a little high.

In any case, here goes:

Subtotal before coupons: $129.79
Discounts and coupons: $44.76
Total: $85.03
Savings: 34%

Part of my measly savings rate was due to my totals being bumped up with pet foot and cat litter. That stuff is hard to find discounted, so it adds to my total but detracts from my overall savings.

Anyway... I'll try to be a better blogger in August. I'm taking a photography class in September so August is filled with trying to master my camera and get a good base for certain photographic elements that I'd like to develop more.

I'm also hoping to start getting serious about a potential scooter purchase. I have purchase anxiety so something like this tends to be a slow process for me. How I ever pulled the trigger on a home purchase is anyone's guess!!

Here's the first of hopefully many shots that will turn out nicely:



National Arboretum, July 31, 2010
Asian Collections
Focal Length: 45mm
F/11, 1/100s
ISO 200

June Savings Round-Up

It was a semi-good month for coupon savings. Not my best but I splurged a couple times:

Subtotal before coupons: $240.17*
Coupons and discounts: $79.00
---------------------------------
Total Spent: $151.17
Savings Rate: 34%

Not bad. This does not include alcohol (alcohol is a separate budget category and between bars and purchases from home I try to stay under $50/month).

*My Grocery budget line item is $250.00. Through couponing I have been trying to cut this in half. I've been doing okay with that goal, spending between $99 - $150.00 out of pocket each month on groceries with savings rates of about 30-50%. Individual trip savings rates vary widely - from 13-70%, but I have been striving for a total savings rate of 50-60%. I could be doing better, but I don't want to take all the fun out of eating, either.

back and forth back and forth

The guys are in my apartment doing some painting so I grabbed my laptop and am down here in the lobby hanging out while they finish. Right down the hall a married couple owns two units that are across from each other.

They do a lot of going back and forth and seem very anal about locking the doors.

This is what I've been hearing pretty much constantly for the past 25 minutes:

Person leaves Apartment #1: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #2: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #1: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #2: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Seriously?!?! If you are going to be going back and forth so rapidly, just leave the freaking deadbolt open! Honestly! This is not Beirut, no one is going to storm in, the building is secure, it's 4:12pm, it just seems like such a hassle to deal with the deadbolt when they're obviously making MULTIPLE trips and back forth.

Sheesh!

Holding Hands

Natasha napping with her little paw wrapped around my finger.



She's been sleeping all day long! Lucky girl.

Misc Musings

1. Where is this year going? I can't believe the 4th of July - and my 30th not too far after - is next weekend. Yikes! I feel like summer should just be starting but we're already closing in on July.

2. As an early birthday present from my father I got a Roku! This thing is awesome. It's a little box that you connect to your TV and allows you to watch your Netflix Instant movies and TV shows on your TV! I feel like I basically have HBO. You start it up and it conencts to your queue and the rest of Netflix's Watch Instantly inventory. Right now I'm watching some old episodes of Law & Order: SVU, earlier I was watching old episodes of The Office. It's GREAT, just like channel surfing except with wayyyy more choices. Thanks Dad!

3. Today we met up for lunch at a place called Locolat Cafe and had a great meal. I had savory herb waffles with prosciutto and parmesan cheese. He had a smoked salmon and cheese panini with spinach. We passed on dessert - the summer slimdown is in full swing.

4. My bookshelves... omg... so close and so far! My carpenter came over yesterday to take one final measurement. Construction has started but he needed to confirm one detail and talk about some of the finishings. He said it should only be another day and a half for construction, then we have to figure out where to do the painting - either in the workshop or at my apartment after installation, or a combination of the two - and then we're done! I can't wait. Pictures will be posted.

Sailing

Kicked off the summer solstice with a nice long sail down the Anacostia following by amazing steaks, pasta salad, corn on the cob, and beer grilled at the marina. And I'm not even sunburned!

It's been so hot here - in the mid-90's for weeks on end, and DC always seems to just miss the thunderstorms! They brush right by the city and give us a half-hearted mention but nothing satisfactory and nothing to break the heat.

MS White House

This humidity is really crushing my runs. I just find it very difficult to run strong in the heat and humidity. I know it takes time to acclimate and I'm working on it, but in the mean time, discouragement sets in. So I took advantage of cooler temps and cloud cover to run the long way home from work today.

First I jogged up to Meridian Hill park, tackled a whole bunch of steps, quads screaming! I made sure to do some work along the way:



See the MS 13 carved into the bench? Second rung from the top.

Then I headed down 16th St to the White House and cut across the Mall, taking Independence Ave to Washington Ave and around to my home.



Overall the run was just under an hour, which is the longest I've done since the weather turned. I was sweating and tired when I got home but encouraged and sunburn free.

Splurge!

I did something today that I have rarely done since discovering coupon savings... splurged on groceries. AND I did it quite cheaply! I'm proud of myself... I got some necessities for the week and a couple of nice treats and still stayed under $25.

Necessities:
2 red bell peppers
2 heads garlic
1 package baby spinach
10 Dannon yogurts
1 vidalia onion

Splurges:
Mixed olives from the olive bar
Hummus
Italian sausages
Raisinets

Subtotal: $34.19
Coupons: $10.00
Total: $24.19
Savings: 29%

Not the best savings rate but I'm very happy with my overall out-of-pocket total!

I've been craving fat lately hence the olives and hummus, and also eating a ton of roasted veggies over greens and/or pasta. So it looks like I'm set for the week and not too far off of my target $40/week budget.

Rave Run

My latest favorite place to run is the National Arboretum. The Arb is a serious gem, a large swath of trails and gardens in the middle of northeast DC. The main loop is about 3ish hilly miles of paved road, with plenty of little offshoots if you want to check out the fern valley, the Asian collections, the conifers, or any other little spot along the way.

At the welcome center is a great koi pond with fish all too accustomed to being fed! For a quarter you can get some fish food out of the vendor and don't the fish know it! They all crowd toward the wall closest to the vendor and look up at you with gaping mouths. Worse than a dog at the dinner table!

Another favorite spot of mine is the bonsai garden. Some trees are over 100 years old. How do you get the job of bonsai curator?? Sounds awesome to me.

Here are some photos (not mine) of the Arb. Can you believe this is right in town? And less than ten minutes by car from my condo.

All Dressed Up and Someplace To Go

Tonight the four of us went to see the Capitol Hill Chorale perform the Georgian Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the first time this liturgy has been performed since it was written by Zakaria Pavliashvili in 1909.

Unbelievable. Dark, haunting, with harmonies of the type I'd never heard before. The chorale learned the music from a photocopy of a photocopy of the microfilm on which the score was being stored at the Lenin Library in Moscow. The ambassador to Georgia and his family were in attendance; it was a full house!

I dressed up a little bit and even broke out a rarely worn necklace that I picked up in the Yuruan Market in Shanghai a few years ago.

File Under PITA

I came home from work today and there was water all over my bathroom. Turns out something is wrong with my air conditioner unit and it leaked through the trapdoor and into the bathroom itself. Investigation revealed and rusty and potentially cracked condensation pan. The repair guy is coming tomorrow. In the mean time my windows and thrown open and I'm thankful for a little storm that came through and cooled things off.

Unfortunately cleaning up and trying to solve that mystery took a bit of time and by the time I could sit down and think about dinner, I was way beyond starving. I chopped up some peppers and garlic and threw them into the oven to roast and have over greens. Yesterday I purchased a huge tub of salad greens (not cheap!) and was hoping to have healthy dinners for the next week. Well, I opened the tub and all the greens were slimy and gross. I was able to pick a few good ones out but the slime is pervasive. They must have been old - I'm meticulous about storing greens and can usually get them to last over a week.

Sigh... I'm taking tomorrow off for the repair guy AND some good news (my carpenter is coming to take hard measurements for my shelves!) so at least I can look forward to a leisurely morning and an extra hour or so of sleep.

Decisions decisions

Well up until a few days ago I was pretty much set on going back to Asia next year. I've been dying to see the temples in Cambodia.

But now I'm thinking I might like to tour Italy.

Could I have two options on the table that are any further apart? What do you guys think?

What does $14.50 worth of stuff look like?

1 bag Hershey's dark M&Ms
1 12-pack Cottonelle toilet paper
2 bags veggie pasta
1 bad Snyder's pretzels
1 package Sesmark rice cracker
2 Bumblebee tuna bowls
1 2000 Flushes cleaner
1 Satin Care shave gel
1 Tampax
1 4-pack Yoplait yogurt
1 Clearasil face wash
TOTAL BEFORE COUPONS: $43.35
COUPONS AND DISCOUNTS: $28.85
------------------------------
TOTAL: $14.50
SAVINGS: 67%

Bullet Points

Lots of little things to report!

-My dear friend Lezlie moved to Capitol Hill today! Yay! I'm excited for her to be close by... let the happy hours commence! Plus she has a fireplace AND patio at her new place... I can't decide which one I want to make use of first. Um, can I be the third roommate? I'll sleep on the patio :-D

-My dear friend Rosie is moving to Arizona for grad school right after spending the summer in Ireland. I'll miss her but am very excited for this new chapter in her life. Once she gets used to feeling baked (as in an oven, not as in marijuana!) all the time I know she'll enjoy AZ and having all the time she needs to foucs on her photography. Yay Rosie!

-My custom bookshelves are officially in the works! I had the carptenter come by yesterday to go over the plans one more time and take some soft measurements. We talked about shelf depth, spacing, number of shelves, all those fun things. Now he needs to get estimates for the materials and take hard measurements... then build, paint, and install. Shouldn't be long now!

-I am STILL dealing with water damage to my wall from the snow storms. The first painter/repair man didn't get all the wet plaster out so the new paint just bubbled right back up. I had a different person assess the damage and he ended up opening my entire wall all the way down to the brick. Yikes. But seriously, this is what I kinda thought should have happened the first time... so... it's very unselling to look at a torn-apart wall, but we're on our way to FINALLY having this fixed for good.

-The weather has been beautiful and I'm stuck with an injured foot. I've been RICEing it (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation) all week and will be ready to go out for a test spin tomorrow... wish me luck. Being laid up is really tough. Running is therapy!

Things Unfinished

I hate having things unfinished. I do not like items pending. I very much enjoy finishing a project (quickly!) and crossing it off the list. Well, it looks like my comfort zone is being pushed in this area, and I don't like it.

I'm still dealing with my water-damaged walls from the snowstorms in February. The roof leak was fixed and the wall scraped and re-painted, however, the paint has bubbled up again and when the painter came today to look at it, he determined that the plaster was still wet. Whether it's still wet because there's still a leak or whether it just hadn't dried before he plastered over it remains to be seen. Right now there's a big splotch of scraped paint and plaster on my kitchen wall. It's a test to see if it bubbles up. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get hold of my management company to get the roofing contractor out to search for leaks.

I just want the wall fixed and painted and to not have to think about it!

I'm also in the process of having some custom bookshelves made. I have a contract, made a deposit, and am waiting for the building to come take measurements. In the mean time, my books are overflowing the bookshelves I have and are piled up on the floor. I hate it, it looks ugly and disorganized. I just want my nice new custom shelves and to have some semblance of order in my library!

All these unfinished projects are enough to give me an anxiety attack!!

April Savings Round-Up

Not a bad month!

Grocery:
Total: $157.89
Savings: $79.35
------------------------
Out-of-Pocket: $78.54
Savings: 50%

Pharmacy:
Total: $20.11
Savings: $8.03
------------------------
Out-of-Pocket: $12.08
Savings: 40%