About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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June 4, 2008
Photo credit: www.ciaprochef.com/
BD and I are on a kick to see how useful iPhone can be. We’ve mainly been using the GoogleMaps function together, and a bit of the Safari browser on the side. I use the heck out of the email function now that it works most of the time, but that’s not useful when we’re hanging out.
I’ve found that there are a couple sites, like Citysearch and Amazon, that offer a special version of their site for the iPhone which would be special but they actually seem like dumbed down versions. Actual Citysearch on the web shows price ranges (very important!), location, ratings, reviews and sometimes, hours of operation. iPhone Citysearch locates restaurants and gives an address. That’s it.
On this particular quest, we were trying to coordinate dinner and a movie in the same city. Since we primarily have AMC tickets, we needed to stay close to an AMC theatre, but we weren’t familiar enough with the area to pick a restaurant. Between Garmin, random suggestions (Indian? Yeah, Indian sounds good. I’ve found ten restaurants, how do we pick? Uh, Japanese sounds good….sorry. Oooh, Japanese? That sounds even better! Ok, let’s find a sushi restaurant!), and iPhone Citysearch, I found Fuki Sushi in Palo Alto was a highly rated restaurant five years running. iPhone Citysearch wouldn’t tell me anything else more useful like how much we could expect to pay, and the reviews I’d Googled sounded both promising (palate) and intimidating (wallet).
We decided to give it a shot even though not knowing what the price range could be made us both nervous.
The menu was remarkably extensive: pages upon pages of appetizers, a la carte items, noodle dishes, rice/dinner combinations, sushi/sashimi combinations. I think we might have spent nearly as much time putting together the perfect order (portions, proportions of raw fish to cooked items, total cost) as we did eating the meal. We have a thing about overordering, at least when BD’s in charge, so we’ve developed a menu conversation where we try to balance it perfectly to have a reasonable amount of leftovers, if any.
Our appetizer, the spicy agedashi tofu, was heavenly. Perfection. The garlic and spices that made it spicy were completely worth the sniffles and watering eyes. Absolute heaven. I didn’t even want to move on to the next dish, it was so good. (Disclaimer: I love love love tofu and garlic, so if you’re not of the same mind, you might not be quite as enamored of this dish as I was. But I highly recommend it if you even lukewarm like tofu and garlic.)
We shared two pieces of hamachi (yellowtail), two pieces of madai (red snapper), a kani roll (snow crab meat) and an assorted tempura dinner that included a generous stack of shrimp and vegetable tempura, a generous serving of rice, and four additional pieces of sashimi. Mmmm.. I’m getting hungry again thinking about it. The fish was cold, not so cold that you couldn’t taste it, but just cold enough to accentuate the freshness. I always wonder how someone can have texture issues like I do and be ok with eating raw fish, but it never stops me.
The bill was just under $50 for the both of us, including a nice tip. I liked our server, she didn’t bother us during the meal but took care of each stage efficiently so we never had to look for her.
I felt like our meal was definitely a splurge since we weren’t celebrating any sort of occasion, but the experience was lovely and I look forward to returning to try the million other menu items that we had to pass on. Usually I get annoyed by a menu that’s too extensive, but this one was intriguing.
June 3, 2008
The oranges I bought on Sunday? Ewwwww. I peeled one today and found a large weird green spot just under the skin. When I pulled away more of the pith from that area, it opened up to reveal stringy black and green grossness. Not only am I not eating that, I’m calling Vons on their produce satisfaction guarantee and taking it right back there. Mostly because I am So. Grossed. Out.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Ugh.
In this article from the Wall Street Journal by Douglas Sease, he suggests yet another pen and paper method of tracking your expenses to help increase spending awareness and save more effectively: the 3×5 method.
He and his wife came to the realization that they needed to figure out where their money was going when
“we were shocked and surprised that the profits from a house sale had simply disappeared a year later. I had counted on those profits to form the core of a savings program that would allow us, over the years, to buy a boat and save enough to retire early and go sailing.
We both resolved — that’s important because this plan won’t work if everyone isn’t playing the game — to figure out where in the world the money was going. The weekly 3×5 cards were the vehicle to do it. Much was revealed in the first month alone. Restaurants were a primary villain. We had moved to New York from Detroit and were reveling in the variety and quality of dining opportunities suddenly available. And going broke as a result. The bad part was that most of the meals hadn’t been worth what they cost. Good, yes. Memorable, no. We resolved to indulge our own penchant for cooking more often.”
He notes that the “secrets” to their success were:
1. Having a real-time account of their expenses. It was crucial to know where their money was going.
2. Developing buyer’s remorse in advance of buying.
Of the entire article, I’d say that this is one of the most important principles of finance: learning to ask yourself, “Do I really need this?”
I’ve been concentrated on Mypoints for so long that I’ve been ignoring my e-Rewards emails. What can I say? I really wanted my $50 Target gift card. Since becoming a member several months ago, I’ve probably completed one actual survey, and about three Quick Response surveys worth thirty cents a piece in rewards currency.
Chalk my apathy up to the ignorance of their rewards offerings. I spent some time exploring their rewards structure, and honestly, they’re not that great, but there are two rewards that are worth actually participating in the program for, and their limitations are rather stringent:
1. A 26-week subscription to Wall Street Journal!! Remember that this would excite me. [cost: 45 Rewards dollars, worth: $59 cash]
This 26-week subscription will be delivered 6 days a week.
Offer is available for new subscribers and in the contiguous U.S. only. [So, even though there are “no limitations on redemptions,” I can only get a single subscription with no renewals?]
Subscriptions available for individual use only.
2. $15 Borders Bucks [cost: 15 Rewards dollars, worth $15 cash]
Redemption of this Reward is limited. You may claim one reward per calendar year per Borders Rewards account and/or e-Rewards account.
Borders Bucks that are not redeemed by the end of the month after the month they were issued will be forfeited. [ie: one month to redeem.]
Borders Bucks are redeemable at participating Borders stores for in-store merchandise only and cannot be combined with appreciation discount events.
They do have a small variety of travel rewards but they’re all increments of 500 and 1000 bonus miles or points which don’t go very far. Hilton Hotel Honors points are the only thing I might bother to redeem for. Someday I’ll use those hotel points for a nice stay somewhere!
I’ve got $25.95 in Rewards Currency now. It appears that it’ll be worth exerting myself to earn $60 worth of Currency this year and maybe stock up $15 for next year if it looks like the program’s still going to be around. A bit lackluster, but worth a little more effort than I’ve put into it.
June 2, 2008
I got off lightly, but oy, I should know better than to take girlfriends to the mall for distraction. I mean, really. She “didn’t want to talk about it,” so she ended up buying shoes, twelve shirts and two pairs of crop pants. Spent juuust under $200. I have to admit, they were all very cute and work-worthy. If we were the same size, I’d borrow any of the stuff she bought.
I, on the other hand, having just said that I couldn’t justify buying any more shoes, found a pair of metallic multi-colored strappy shoes that will go with at least two dresses that I love to wear, but haven’t matched with any shoes. They’ll definitely go with a few other dresses I can think of as well, like all my black or green dresses. In my meager defense, I will say that they were originally $20, and were 50% off, so they were only ten dollars. I submit, my ten dollar shoes:
And the dresses I think will work with these shoes:
I did see some other shoes that were really cute, that were all gold, but I think this pair will be most flexible.
I swear, no more shopping!
on a Classic Trench Coat that actually fits! I know, I know, I’m announcing the purchase of a trench coat on the cusp of summer? I must be crazy. But! It was 50% off, the coat fit me, and I had well over half of the cost in gift cards, and those are three moons that seldom align just right. Unfortunately, I did have to pony up an additional $22 for the balance because 50% off plus tax = $102, but I’ve even checked on ebay and on Banana Republic’s website to make sure that I didn’t pay too much: ebay’s selling it for up to full price ($159-$198) and it’s not even on BR’s website anymore.
Until the dead of summer, the train is always just a shade too chilly to go without some piece of outerwear in the mornings, and it starts to get chilly at night when I get home from work. I’ve worn it every single day since I bought it (8 times), and twice at the end of the week. I expect to continue to wear it every morning until it’s actually hot enough in the mornings to go without.
There are a plethora of buttons, and I can really batten down the hatches if I want to with the “tabs” that extend from the shoulders. I don’t know what they’re called, and you can’t see them hidden under the lapels in the images I found, but they add a little touch of class to the coat. The entire coat is lined with a layer of cotton. It’s big enough for me to wear a sweater underneath but it fits perfectly in the shoulders so I can just tie the belt tighter when I forgo an extra layer. It doubled perfectly as a blanket for the flight down from the Bay Area, and it packs down nicely, because it’s thin, when I have to stuff it in my bag. While it wouldn’t fit into my everyday bright pink bag, I think it will into whatever grown-up bag I finally get. It’s knee-length, and belted, so I’ll be able to wear it over a dress or nice slacks ifI go out in the evenings. All in all, this coat fits my need for a knee length, light-colored, lightweight, all purpose coat that can go formal or informal. My only concern is that it’s dry clean only, and the light color combined with my klutziness/accident proneness could be disastrous.
June 1, 2008
My lovely friends, the original two wheels to my third, stole me away for a beach trip yesterday.
The male half was meant to have brunch with me in the late morning, but stood me up to play tennis for two hours. To make up for it, we semi-planned to have coffee but that fell through as well. He rang me up about an hour later to invite me to join them at the beach instead. Uh …. uh …. ok!
I just don’t do spontaneous, so I was at a loss for how to prepare for a beach trip with only 30 minutes to get myself together. It’s not that I get ready at a snail’s pace, I’m just an inveterate planner, and things like that throw me for a loop. Anyway, I dug out my bathing suit and a couple beach towels, a book and my phone, and was set. Well, I was set only because my friend had already gone on a Summer Shopping Spree and picked up a new cooler, beach umbrella, snacks and drinks. He would have gotten us magazines too, but his girlfriend wasn’t with him and he refused to buy Cosmo without her. Just as well, I was already set with my reading material.
We got there late in the afternoon, and paid for a couple hours of parking ($3). The breeze was awfully chilly but the skies were clear for miles, and the sun was still going strong. I pried myself off the blanket where, huddled, I was not getting any warmer and took myself for a long run/walk/sprint session all the way down the shoreline and back. By the time I returned, I was sweating and ready to jump in the ocean. They were playing chess on a 10 game set they’d found for $9.97; justifiably proud of their dollar/game bargain.
Despite my hesitance to abuse my hands, we threw a football and Frisbee around in a game that quickly devolved into throwing as best we could, or throwing as best we could to get it around, past, or over the head of the catcher. I lost count of the number of tosses that went WAY over my head that I still went for and I’ll still be tweezing sand out of my scraped knees tomorrow!
Another hour ($1.50) was spent winding down and half-napping until it was just too cold to lay out any longer, and we went off to the Cheesecake Factory. To be honest, I developed an aversion to CF a long time ago, but was apparently too tired to put up any resistance, so iPhone Googlemapped some restaurants for us, and we found ourselves waiting outside the restaurant with our little pager within the hour.
My garlic spaghettini with chicken was delicious, as was the slice of original cheesecake we shared three ways. Friend only let me get the tip ($5). If he hadn’t just run short of cash, he wouldn’t have even let me get that much, halfsies was out of the question.
Home at nine, glad that the money spent came out of the reimbursement cash for the collect calls because I wouldn’t have even had any cash on me at all, and happy to have spent such a nice day with friends. My calves are less thrilled, though. Beach running is rough on the feet.
