so for the past few years, we did the dave ramsey budgeting method with taking cash out for certain budget categories (we just do grocery and entertainment) to keep better control on spending and make you think about what you're actually spending the money on. i really like the idea of it, and i think it's effective, but we've fallen out of the habit in the past year or so. every month, usually within the first few days of the month but sometimes as late as the 15th, i'll download all of the transactions on our account from the past month and reconcile them, add up each category (love excel!), and type in the "actuals" to see how we did with the budget, then set a fresh budget for that month. i'm currently reconciling the transactions from august, and remembering another reason why i like doing cash instead of debit: number of transactions.
looking back at previous months' transactions - back in sept'07, when we were good at doing cash, there were about 55 transactions to categorize. this month, not doing cash - 99. last july, when we were buying a bunch of random house stuff, didn't take out cash, ate out a lot, AND took our big 10 day alaska vacation? 130. really, my attention starts to wane after about 60, and that's with scott having set up my spreadsheet to have a dropdown menu of category options so that i don't even have to type in each label. *sigh. (and yes, we do go to the grocery store way too often for our own good.)
checkity check
we made an enormous to-do list on sunday, full of stuff to get done before scott's family gets here tomorrow. most of it is just general cleaning that needs to happen anyway, but a few things are projects that we've just been putting off. just little things, like shortening the blinds we bought and installed last year, and installing the new towel bars in our bathroom: towel bar installation - checkity check, blinds shortening - half of a check. anyway, we got a lot of the tasks done on sunday, so tonight is mostly just general cleaning - vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the bathroom vanity, etc. hopefully it won't take too terribly long?
in other tremendously exciting news, i picked out a shirt to wear to our friend's wedding this weekend! i got a cute pair of white capris at the outlets a few weeks ago that i'll wear with it, and gold flops. hey, the dress code is "look good, be comfortable, avoid jeans" - so i think i'll be fine.
my life is boring - house cleaning checklists and a new shirt. i haven't blogged in a week, and this is what i come up with? oh! i did find out last week that four people i know are pregnant! FOUR. that's a lot. i'm very excited for all of them (the women i know well, particularly), it's just a little crazy. talk about a baby boom!
in other tremendously exciting news, i picked out a shirt to wear to our friend's wedding this weekend! i got a cute pair of white capris at the outlets a few weeks ago that i'll wear with it, and gold flops. hey, the dress code is "look good, be comfortable, avoid jeans" - so i think i'll be fine.
my life is boring - house cleaning checklists and a new shirt. i haven't blogged in a week, and this is what i come up with? oh! i did find out last week that four people i know are pregnant! FOUR. that's a lot. i'm very excited for all of them (the women i know well, particularly), it's just a little crazy. talk about a baby boom!
shameless
i know very little about heidi montag, except for these things:
1. she got her "start" on one of those mtv reality shows a few years ago - "the hills" maybe?
2. she is married to a guy named spencer who has a gross beard, and they claim to be christians.
3. she is completely shameless - she posed in playboy, is trying to launch a singing career, went on "i'm a celebrity get me out of here" with blago's wife, and basically makes it her mission to be in as many tabloids as possible.
4. i find her to be one of the most annoying people alive. which is saying a lot since i'm pretty sure i remember writing a rant about paris hilton a year or two ago - if you're worse than paris, you know it's bad.
thus, i was very excited when i saw this headline on msn: "anderson cooper disses heidi and her talent". glorious. thank you, anderson cooper, for saying that. i know very little about anderson cooper other than that he has a blog (and apparently a show) on cnn, and that in pictures, he's usually posing with malnourished children in africa. i haven't looked up the video for this spot yet, but from what msn reported, i wholeheartedly agree with him. read it. you'll agree, too. particularly if you look through the pictures to the left of the article - just click the little pink "next" button. trust me on this.
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unrelatedly, we've had a busy week! we were at the rockies game with mike, maura, and kinley all evening on wednesday - as in, i left for work at 7:25am, and we got home at 10:25pm. it was fun, though. we spent an evening (maybe two?) stripping caulk out of the main bathroom so that we could get it re-caulked in time for scott's parents and sister to arrive next week. we got in a few bike rides, too. in fact, last night we biked over to a mall about a mile from our house to go to sears to pick up caulk, and look around. the mall's having its official grand opening this weekend, and it looks really nice - lots of little restaurants and shops and fountains. (it's an outdoor mall.) and a movie theater! we're hoping if we go there this weekend we'll get some coupons or vouchers. *fingerscrossed* i did get the tub caulked last night - hoorah! started at 9:30pm, finished at 10:30. we splurged and went for the "titanium silicone" caulk that was $1.50 more per tube in hopes that its super-duper-ness will mean that it holds better.
1. she got her "start" on one of those mtv reality shows a few years ago - "the hills" maybe?
2. she is married to a guy named spencer who has a gross beard, and they claim to be christians.
3. she is completely shameless - she posed in playboy, is trying to launch a singing career, went on "i'm a celebrity get me out of here" with blago's wife, and basically makes it her mission to be in as many tabloids as possible.
4. i find her to be one of the most annoying people alive. which is saying a lot since i'm pretty sure i remember writing a rant about paris hilton a year or two ago - if you're worse than paris, you know it's bad.
thus, i was very excited when i saw this headline on msn: "anderson cooper disses heidi and her talent". glorious. thank you, anderson cooper, for saying that. i know very little about anderson cooper other than that he has a blog (and apparently a show) on cnn, and that in pictures, he's usually posing with malnourished children in africa. i haven't looked up the video for this spot yet, but from what msn reported, i wholeheartedly agree with him. read it. you'll agree, too. particularly if you look through the pictures to the left of the article - just click the little pink "next" button. trust me on this.
_____
unrelatedly, we've had a busy week! we were at the rockies game with mike, maura, and kinley all evening on wednesday - as in, i left for work at 7:25am, and we got home at 10:25pm. it was fun, though. we spent an evening (maybe two?) stripping caulk out of the main bathroom so that we could get it re-caulked in time for scott's parents and sister to arrive next week. we got in a few bike rides, too. in fact, last night we biked over to a mall about a mile from our house to go to sears to pick up caulk, and look around. the mall's having its official grand opening this weekend, and it looks really nice - lots of little restaurants and shops and fountains. (it's an outdoor mall.) and a movie theater! we're hoping if we go there this weekend we'll get some coupons or vouchers. *fingerscrossed* i did get the tub caulked last night - hoorah! started at 9:30pm, finished at 10:30. we splurged and went for the "titanium silicone" caulk that was $1.50 more per tube in hopes that its super-duper-ness will mean that it holds better.
penne with pork tenderloin and summer squash in white wine
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labels:
recipes
oh my, i just made a very tasty dinner. so good, in fact, that i feel the need to preserve my impromptu recipe for posterity.
penne with pork tenderloin and summer squash in a white wine sauce
(i need a better name for this)
8oz penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 boneless pork chop, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
splash low-sodium soy sauce
salt, pepper, italian seasoning
(probably also good with a dash of crushed red pepper here - didn't think of that til just now!)
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, chopped
white wine
splash lemon juice
fresh basil, sliced
parmesan cheese
boil penne. dice pork chop, saute in olive oil with chopped garlic. splash soy sauce on cooking pork chop, season with salt, pepper, italian seasoning blend. when 50% cooked, add squash and zucchini to pan. cook until beginning to soften. add white wine (until bottom of pan is covered, plus a little extra) and a splash of lemon juice. continue cooking until squash and zucchini are cooked almost through. add cherry tomatoes and green onions. drain pasta, add to pan with pork/veggies/sauce. serve, top with shredded parmesan. enjoy!
i was actually planning on making something similar yesterday, but with swiss chard that i got at the berry farm's farmer's market instead of summer squash. apparently chard is very perishable, though, because in the 48 hours that it was hanging out in my fridge at home, it totally wilted, so i ended up tossing it. we made sweet and sour chicken instead. alas and alack.
(for dessert, i highly recommend leftover ice cream cake from maggie moo's that you took to small group and thought would get eaten up, but ended up with 6 pieces to take home. don't worry, we did work out tonight.)
penne with pork tenderloin and summer squash in a white wine sauce
(i need a better name for this)
8oz penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 boneless pork chop, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
splash low-sodium soy sauce
salt, pepper, italian seasoning
(probably also good with a dash of crushed red pepper here - didn't think of that til just now!)
1 yellow squash, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 green onions, chopped
white wine
splash lemon juice
fresh basil, sliced
parmesan cheese
boil penne. dice pork chop, saute in olive oil with chopped garlic. splash soy sauce on cooking pork chop, season with salt, pepper, italian seasoning blend. when 50% cooked, add squash and zucchini to pan. cook until beginning to soften. add white wine (until bottom of pan is covered, plus a little extra) and a splash of lemon juice. continue cooking until squash and zucchini are cooked almost through. add cherry tomatoes and green onions. drain pasta, add to pan with pork/veggies/sauce. serve, top with shredded parmesan. enjoy!
i was actually planning on making something similar yesterday, but with swiss chard that i got at the berry farm's farmer's market instead of summer squash. apparently chard is very perishable, though, because in the 48 hours that it was hanging out in my fridge at home, it totally wilted, so i ended up tossing it. we made sweet and sour chicken instead. alas and alack.
(for dessert, i highly recommend leftover ice cream cake from maggie moo's that you took to small group and thought would get eaten up, but ended up with 6 pieces to take home. don't worry, we did work out tonight.)
i just want to enjoy the sunshine
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labels:
summer
my house is the place where phone service goes to die, i think. we tried all of the jacks in the house last night (which is a lot - at least one in almost every room), and alas, none of them picked up a line, so we get to pay qwest $85 to come fix the problem. hoorah! they're coming this afternoon, and i really really hope it's an easy fix.
i'm debating what to do tonight, still. scott's going off to a fantasy football draft party with the guys. the guy who's hosting it's wife is inviting the wives over to hang out and play games ... but i'd already told myself i would stay home and start stripping caulk in the main bath. i'm torn, though, because it would be fun to hang out, but it could also be nice to hang out by myself at home - and more productive, for sure. but there's not really so much of a time crunch on doing the caulking that not starting tonight would throw our timeline completely off ... we'll see. i meant to do the caulking before my parents got here in june (sorry, guys), so my next goal is to have it done before scott's parents get here a few days before labor day weekend. which is less than two weeks away, now. crazy - where did this summer go?!
i'm also going berry picking with the girls bright and early tomorrow morning. as in, meeting at 7:30 to leave early. it should be fun, though. berry picking and browsing around the farm's organic farmer's market is totally one of my favorite parts of summer. they put together bags of fresh produce with a recipes - like a bagged kit for pasta sauce, or salsa, or tomatillo salsa. i got the bag for tomatillo salsa last year, and it was amazing - i really hope they have it again this weekend. it made a ton of salsa, though, to the extent where after two weeks we made nachos for dinner solely because we wanted to get rid of the tomatillo salsa before it went bad.
i think one of my favorite things about denver is its great mix of midwestern and west coast life. you get casual clothes and lots of sun, fun things like tomatillos which i never knew existed before we moved out here, but still have comfortable oaks and maples and pines in the backyard rather than exotic palm trees.
i'm debating what to do tonight, still. scott's going off to a fantasy football draft party with the guys. the guy who's hosting it's wife is inviting the wives over to hang out and play games ... but i'd already told myself i would stay home and start stripping caulk in the main bath. i'm torn, though, because it would be fun to hang out, but it could also be nice to hang out by myself at home - and more productive, for sure. but there's not really so much of a time crunch on doing the caulking that not starting tonight would throw our timeline completely off ... we'll see. i meant to do the caulking before my parents got here in june (sorry, guys), so my next goal is to have it done before scott's parents get here a few days before labor day weekend. which is less than two weeks away, now. crazy - where did this summer go?!
i'm also going berry picking with the girls bright and early tomorrow morning. as in, meeting at 7:30 to leave early. it should be fun, though. berry picking and browsing around the farm's organic farmer's market is totally one of my favorite parts of summer. they put together bags of fresh produce with a recipes - like a bagged kit for pasta sauce, or salsa, or tomatillo salsa. i got the bag for tomatillo salsa last year, and it was amazing - i really hope they have it again this weekend. it made a ton of salsa, though, to the extent where after two weeks we made nachos for dinner solely because we wanted to get rid of the tomatillo salsa before it went bad.
i think one of my favorite things about denver is its great mix of midwestern and west coast life. you get casual clothes and lots of sun, fun things like tomatillos which i never knew existed before we moved out here, but still have comfortable oaks and maples and pines in the backyard rather than exotic palm trees.
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