Small updates

I finally finished Picross DS.

I found someone (via Facebook) who works at Yahoo! who also went to my High School (two years ahead of me), but I didn’t know her then and I don’t know her now.

I have saved approximately $140 so far in the last three months because of the increased mileage from my Prius.

It smells like smoke here, even in the office a little bit.

(For those of you not in the area, there’s a forest fire going on about 40 miles from here.)

Absence of posting

Just because I’m not posting doesn’t mean things aren’t happening.

  • I went down to SoCal for my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah last weekend. It’s scary that he’s 13 already, because I remember him being born. I also think I impressed him by “fixing” their TV to make the Wii work by changing it to the right input with a single button press.
  • I’m trying to lose weight again, although I haven’t introduced more exercise into the equation yet, I am back to eating less. I know it’s not enough yet, but I’m still trying to work out my routine.
  • I’m also in the process of examining my budget, after realizing that I’m probably spending more on random per-month things than I really need to. Scarily, the money I spend on FFXI each month is starting to seem like it would be better spent elsewhere. I’m also going to try to look into possibly refinancing to lock into a nice low rate, even though my ARM is going to be coming back down because it’s a 12 month moving average. My mortgage payment is about 130% of what it was when I first started, and that extra money every month really starts to hurt.
  • My room is probably the cleanest its ever been since I moved in. I’ve been working on the various regions of it, and I just managed to get my desk mostly cleared this weekend. The last few steps were amazingly noticeable — sections of carpet that hadn’t seen the light of day in years were now visible. Seeing each part by itself was already pretty amazing, once I managed to get it all done at once, I’m going to have to take pictures as historical proof.
  • My Prius didn’t get as good mileage as I thought it would have when I drove down to SoCal. I suppose it makes sense: when you’re driving at a constant speed on a flat road, a hybrid doesn’t really get much benefit. I was “only” getting 38-40 mpg on I-5. But then when I hit LA, and I was driving up and down hills, slowing down and speeding up, it went back up to 50. I was a bit afraid that I wouldn’t make it on one tank of gas (it’s a smaller tank than my last car, which could barely make it on one tank), but I managed with miles to spare.

Back to work…

The pitter patter of little feet

I’m at my Mom’s house again, waiting for everyone to get ready for my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah. Another set of cousins from Indiana are also with us, and they brought their 1 year old and 4 year old with them. Unfortunately, the 1 year old has an ear infection, so he is prone to start crying for what appears to be no reason.

I brought my Wii and some of my old Legos. The Legos were for the 4 year old, and the Wii was mostly for the parents and my brother. It’s funny, the Legos are still in this old case which has “property of Andy Scheffler” and the old address in Yorba Linda on it that we haven’t lived in since I was in second grade.

My suit no longer fits. I mean, I can barely fit into it, but I can’t do things like sit up straight or put a wallet in the back pocket. I need to lose weight or buy a new suit, and buying a new suit seems like admitting defeat.

Starting to get annoying

So this LiveJournal embedded media bug that’s been plaguing me forever has hit a new low point. It seems that for some reason, whenever someone embeds media in a post in my friends list, I usually get some previously viewed embedded media instead of the one they posted.

This wouldn’t be so annoying except that, since last week, every embedded media on my friends list has been the Mario Paint version of “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Nutrition and the practical applications thereof

Passover always does a number on me. I’m just not eating the food I need to be eating, and I lack carbs or something and so I’m always tired, hungry and I get headaches. At least I only have four days at work this year. Because of the working over the weekend thing, I got to work from home on Monday.

I think I need some caffeine. And more water.

Happy time fun time!

I’ve just worked my first weekend. This is not a milestone I’m proud of.

I also just received my first piece of spam in Japanese. This is something I’m indifferent about.

It’s Friday, why am I so sad?

I’m sad because I was at work until 11pm last night getting ready for a demo today. (Although other people stayed until 1 a.m., it seems).

I’m sad because I owe money to the gov’m’t. (But I should be happy — it’s because my investments actually made a nice chunk of money.)

I’m sad because, once again, as I get out of my car and walk through the parking lot, the rollercoasters are going and people are screaming and having a good time and I know I have to go inside and work for another eight hours.

I’m sad because, even though I’ve been taking medication for the last two months, that stupid cough is still not really gone, it’s just masked.

Once again, Spring.

Nature is an amazing thing. Birds have the ability to navigate while migrating south for the winter, finding the same nest in the same tree that they used the year before. Then they fly north again and find the same tree and the same window and run into it over and over JUST LIKE LAST YEAR.

The bird is back. Neil Patrick Harris, however is not.