I have too much stuff...

There is nothing like moving to slap you in the face to say, "Hey, you have too much stuff!!" As I packed up my kitchen last night, I realized that maybe five small boxes and three big ones is too much. That's not including the glassware and dishes I already took over last weekend or the Corningware I need to pack tonight. I think the kitchen has generated the most boxes out of any room in the house. When I was sharing this with Shane last night, she said, "I'm not surprised!"

Once I get settled in, I'll see how much of it I actually use and then declutter some more. With everything else going on, decluttering has been far, far, far away from my daily thinking.

On a fun (for someone who likes cooking) note, my brand new refrigerator is being delivered today! Here's what it will look like:

Refrigerator

I almost bought one that looks EXACTLY like the one I've had for the last 10 years, but decided to go with a different color and with contoured doors. I was planning on buying a used refrigerator, but I figured it was going to be more hassle than it was worth. After looking into a few refrigerators on Craigslist, emailing to find out more info because people just cannot post all the pertinent info on the front end, I decided it would be easier to just buy a new one. Plus, they can deliver it! Major plus to not have to ask friends to drag a refrigerator upstairs. I'll take a picture once it's installed today. Then I'll have to call a plumber to see if they can hook up a water line so that I can have ice and chilled water. It has an internal water dispener, a new development in top freezer fridges since I bought my last one.

Moving Sucks!

Moving sucks. That's all there is to it. Anyone who says that they like to move needs to have his head examined. I guess less stuff would help. I thought that I had decluttered my life and you know, I probably have, but man, I still have a lot of crap. I've been sorting as I go: keep and move, give away to a friend, Goodwill and trash. So it's helped. But what doesn't help is that before TiVo when I used to record everything on VHS tapes, I was lax about labeling them. Hence, I have one box full of video tapes that are unmarked and therefore, I have NO idea what's on them. So, once I move, I will have to go through them one by one and figure out what the heck's on them! Doesn't that sound like fun?

The good news is that I have made lots of progress on packing, moving and unpacking. Over the last weekend, I moved three carloads and one Xterra full of boxes. That should help on the big moving day! Once I get everything unpacked and stuff, I will undoubtedly have some kind of apt. warming party and maybe post some pictures. I'm off to a Dodger game tonight, but then Wed and Thurs nights have been reserved for more sorting and packing! Yea!

New Apartment

I found an apartment and I am planning on moving in just a couple weeks! It has everything I wanted:

• Central A/C
• I can have the cats there
• Pool (small, but it has water!)
  
• Laundry on-site (down in the garage)
  
• Decent sized rooms and a good kitchen (for an apt.)
• Street parking for when my friends come to visit!

Here's a picture of the kitchen:

Kitchen

Not too bad for an apartment, huh? It has a dishwasher and a microwave-hood! I'll be able to cook up a storm in there! I do need to buy a fridge though. I'm thinking freezer on top standard model.

Baked potatos rule

Since posting about my joy of baked potatos, I have found another recipe that I just LOVE!!! I found it on Allrecipes, my favorite recipe site. Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Scrub down your potatos and stab then several times with a fork. Rub down with olive oil and sprinkle Kosher salt (or some course salt that's similar in taste) on the potato. You can sprinkle to your taste. I do a light salting. Then bake the potatos for 90 minutes. The skins are delicious and you have to eat them up!

If the potatos are bigger (maybe close to 8 oz.), you might cook them for a bit longer. They'll cook in 90 minutes, but they might not be quite as fluffy on the inside.

I still haven't tried grilling the potatos, but I will be doing that within the next month or so and I will report on it. The next time I cook them with the Kosher salt on the outside, I will post a picture in this post. The salt gets this melted look to it.

Jeopardy update

Well, I went to see my friend Erika tape her Jeopardy! episode last week and unfortunately, she didn't win. I think I was more disappointed by it than she was. Her take on it was, "Hey, I just won $1,000 for a few hours of 'work'!" How true, how true, but it's hard for me not to imagine winning the big $$ or at least winning to be able to come back for another show. Watching her on there, I decided that after I move and play for a bit, I will have to start studying some to be gain more trivial knowledge so that I can try out for Jeopardy!

The subjects I know I need to study are: Presidents, state factoid info., geography and royal crap. I never know when any of the royal families ruled or which kings belonged to which dynasties and all that stuff. So, that maybe can be a resolution for 2007!

New games and Jeopardy!

Well, I was looking at my sheet of new games for the year and I'm up to 30 new ones. If I stay at this pace, I won't hit 100 new games for 2006, but I'll be pretty close! Although, with that convention later this year, that might put me over the top. We'll see... One recent new game took a mere 3 1/2 hours to play!! :-) It was a little longer than expected, but fun anyway.

I am going to watch a friend compete on Jeopardy! tomorrow. I'll let everyone know when her episode will actually air. I'm honored to know that I inspired her to try out for J!. Not by my fearsome trivia knowledge (ha!), but because I organized a group of people to watch a taping last year. Apparently, it had never really crossed her mind to try out until she went to watch a taping. She's supersmart, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she will dominate the competition!!

Chocolate? Yes, please!

I am not a food snob. There are things I don't like to eat (the #1 icky food is olives), but as far as quality, I don't get weird about eating mainstream stuff.

Why is this coming to mind? As I munch the head off of my Easter bunny from See's Candies, I am reminded of how much I really like See's and how my sister prefers Godiva Chocolates. I think it may be that I love the sweeter chocolates and Godiva is Belgian, so it's not quite as sweet. However, I can also be perfectly happy with a very mainstream Snickers bar or Hershey's. My sister will eat it, but prefers not to stoop to that level when eating chocolate.

She must not be a true chocoholic!! And my favorite See's candy? Dark chocolate chip truffles... Mmmmm.....

Traveling

I have made a decision to start traveling more this year. I already have quite a few tentative trips planned:

Summer

• Las Vegas - I was invited to see a friend play in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas! So, I'll be headed there to stay in a free hotel room and hope that he wins the big money! I think the jackpot is $8 million or something like that.
  
• Colorado - My sister is moving to Colorado, so I might be going on a road trip to help her move, but that hasn't been confirmed yet.

Fall

• Washington, DC - to visit my friend Cindy. This will probably be around Labor Day since that's her birthday time!
  
• Phoenix - My friend Shane's sister Alix is getting married, so I'm headed out there twice! Once for the bridal shower and then a month later for the wedding. Right after the wedding, I'll be heading to:
• Jackson, MS - to meet my friend Carolyn, her husband and her new baby for the first time! Then I'm heading directly to:
• Dallas - for a gaming convention. It'll be the first time I've ever gone to a convention of any sort. Actually, scratch that. I once went to a comic book convention to stand in line and get an autograph from Scott Bakula. I was having a Quantum Leap fixation at the time. :-)
• Chicago - My friends Josh and Jane moved to Chicago last year and I made a promise to visit them and visit them I will.
  

Wow, writing them all down really does make it seem like quite a bit of traveling, huh?
Most of them will be for weekends, except for the Phoenix/Jackson/Dallas trip which will be a 10 day trip or so. But it should be fun!! I'd really like to head out to Jacksonville, FL to visit my friends from high school too though. We'll see how it goes.

Now, I just need to start planning what trips I'll take next year. Shane and I have been discussing Fiji. I ran across an old email (because I'm an email packrat!) and she suggested a trip to Hawaii. That would be fun too! Somewhere tropical for sure.

Money blogs

Blogs are odd. For example, all the people I have on my friends list on LiveJournal are people I know in real life. Most of the people on my blogspot blog are in real life friends and some people I've never met in real life. Well, I've decided to start a third blog (because two just isn't enough) and it's going to be a money blog. This one will be completely anonymous! If you're interested in starting one, Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog started a new website only for money blogs. I don't know how it will work, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I started blogging because my sister had her blog going and I thought I'd give it a shot. I started writing about the stuff she and I like to talk about (mainly food and such), but then my money obsession starting taking over and little bits of that popped in with a side of friends and games. This thing has turned into a mish-mash which is fine, but I think I'll try the money-dedicated blog because I get down to particulars without having to worry about who's reading it. Sounds like fun, huh?? :-)

Maxed out for 2006

I made my final payment to max out my Roth IRA for 2005 today. The due date (in most states) is April 17th, so if you haven't done it yet, get on it! I started my Roth IRA in 2002 and I have maxed it out every year. This year I set up my account so that it will max out by December automatically. That makes me feel happy. Or maybe accomplished is a better word.