mixed bag weekend...

this weekend has been up and down. not really sure what to think. it was okay, I suppose, but not nearly as grand as I had envisioned...

I took friday off work, since I didn't feel like working on my birthday. instead I slept in, got biscuits and gravy for breakfast up the street, and cleaned house a bit during the day. I made what turned out to be way too much food for the party that night.

we had some friends over, but quickly abandoned the idea of going bar hopping. instead we went to to zak's for burgers, and I got packed full of "little johnson" before heading back to the apartment for drinks, mario kart and boom blox. by 2am, everyone had gone home. I was entirely prepared for the party to go til 3 or 4am and for people to crash here, so that was odd. getting older, I suppose.

saturday I ventured out to greenwood because I needed some storage boxes for my nerd cards, and the hobby shop out there sold them. only when we got to greenwood, we realised there was a car show that had closed down several blocks of greenwood ave. we had to park and walk nine blocks from the store in glaring ninety degree heat, and witnessed what had to be some of the ugliest fucking people on the planet. it never really occurred to e why I was never drawn to fixing up old cars until that moment: looking around I knew I never wanted to be associated with that sort of white trash.

on the way out of greenwood, we nearly got run over by some asshole in an SUV holding a kiddie pool to the top of his car. we were going through a roundabout, and despite being halfway through it, he barged in front of us and was screaming at me that he had the right of way. I'm not sure how someone can have the right of way in an uncontrolled intersection when the other person was there much earlier and was already going... it's people like that who make me wish for a comet to wipe out all of humanity.

we tried a "minnesota style" pizza place for an early dinner, place called zayda buddy's (I think), and it was okay. the service was horrible, but the pizza wasn't bad, really thin crust. the place was decorated with all sorts of old midwest beer ads, sports memorabilia from minnesota and wisonsin, and old farrah fawcett posters. they had an impressive looking menu, I want to go back and try some of their comfort foods. their sandwiches looked okay, but the burgers were scary... they had a pepperjack cheese stuffed burger that was breaded and deep fried. that doesn't sound healthy. at all.

we went out to see wall-e afterwards, breaking my usual tradition of waiting two or three weeks to see popular movies. we sat in the third row, as we got there only ten minutes before showtime, and it was alright. I can see why kids would like it, but I don't understand why my coworkers were insisting it was going to be so amazing. to me, the toy story movies are the best animation and everything's been downhill from there. the incredibles, to quote sick boy, was merely a blip on an otherwise downward trajectory... I just have been impressed with any of the stuff that's come out since toy story, either pixar or dreamworks... I don't include "wallace and gromit" in this category, since plasticene is still cool.

the worst part about wall-e was the preview for some fucking chihuahua movie. I'd call it "incredibly gay" but I don't want to disparage homosexuality in that way... even calling it "retarded" isn't fair to all the 'tards out there. it just looks wrong on so many levels.

the best part? the "cartoon" at the beginning. the rabbit and magician was pretty cute. but then again, the short before the pixar movies usually are amazing.

don't stay through the closing credits. there's nothing there.

today is going to be a lazy culmination of the weekend. it feels like a bonus day anyway. anytime we're up late on friday, saturday always seems like sunday. we tried, in vain, to get wii fit from toys r us, but were told to try back next sunday. I doubt we'll do much else today, it's too bloody hot for anything. maybe go buy some more fans for the apartment, and probably watch "wristcutters" from netflix.

joy.

there's always something...

got one credit card paid off. had a chance to pay off a second card, but miyuki wisely mentioned maybe we should wait until the end of the month. just 'cos we have the extra money now doesn't mean we HAVE to pay it off right away, no? after all, it's been there for over five years, another couple weeks won't hurt.

turns out she was right. I just sank $400 into the ShitCar. this is after dropping $800 into it last month for its 60k tuneup. the tires had started squealing, and my AC stopped working. it was still cold, but there was no pressure behind it unless I turned it all the way up, and even then it was feeble.

turns out the blower motor fried. and despite having a "100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty" the dash electronics are only covered for the first sixty thousand miles. remember what I mentioned the previous paragraph about my 60k tuneup? yeah, I'm sitting at 62k miles. the damn motor literally crapped out six weeks after the warranty ended.

oh, and the squealing tires? turns out my brake pads were down under two millimeters. that's kinda like, bad, and stuff. so I had to have my brakes redone. you'd think they would have mentioned that during the tuneup... I'm sure it would have been cheaper to have the brakes done somewhere other than the dealership, but I had already been there 90 minutes and didn't want to bother. so I forked over a hundred bucks to get the AC fixed and another three hundred for the brakes. I'm gonna pissed if I have to put anything other than gas and oil into this car before it's paid off next year. I really shouldn't have to fix anything for another three years or so, but I won't hold my breath.

never, EVER buy a hyundai. seriously. they suck ass.

my birthday is in two weeks. I'm debating whether or not to go bar hopping or invite people over. the decision will likely be made for me. we tried going to a bar last weekend with the canadian hordes, and every bar in ballard was packed. I'm not all that excited about my birthday. I just want to go out drinking with friends, and go to a nice dinner with miyuki. monies I get from family (we don't do gifts anymore, which seems kinda silly) will go towards debt. miyuki's mom is getting me a set of scary go round books, because I'd feel bad taking money from her and I don't know if I could ever justify shelling out $85 for some comic books on my own. it'd be nice to find volumes one and two but they're OOP. I may never find them. I'm not as big a fan of his earlier work anyway, his art has dramatically improved over the years. he draws really purdy girls. we also have a karaoke party planned two weeks later in canada. I'm gonna try some new material if I can. and get very drunk, knowing I can crawl two blocks back to "home" at the in-laws.

I've been foiled in several attempts to buy wii fit or mario kart. guess I learned my lesson and will pre-order shit from now on. we did pick up the last copy of lego indiana jones at fred meyer, but I've been frustrated by the gameplay. I've never been very good at the nunchuk controller, I'm not coordinated enough to use both hands independently of one another. I could barely manage the PS2 controller, and that was button mashing with only my right hand 98% of the time. I have a really difficult time using my left hand for buttons AND movement at the same time. hoping mario kart will be easier on me. and we did play wii fit, it seemed like fun. if anyone can recommend where to buy either fit or mario kart, I'd muchly appreciate it. and if you happen to see a copy somewhere, by all means grab it! I'll gladly pay you back for purchase price plus beer or whatever. mmmm, beer.

I also had my first close-up iphone experience. pretty sure I need one now, especially with the 3g price drop. I'll try to hold out til the car is paid off in six months, since I don't want to ADD expenses if I can avoid it. still trying to figure out how the rate plans work, looks like at&t charges for voice and data separately. I wish they had a smaller voice plan, we barely use any of our shared 450 minutes, and it looks like if I upgrade, the smallest family plan now starts at 700 minutes. it'll mean adding $50 or so a month to our phone bill, but I won't feel too guilty splurging on it. it looked REALLY cool.

haven't really lost much weight this month. only two or three pounds. but I was sick for a week and didn't go to the gym. I've also been bad for a few meals. I won't get down to 220 by the end of the month, but 225 is still feasible with some effort. 25 pounds in sixty days still seems impressive. I'm just a bit disappointed that I can't actually tell that I've lost any weight just looking at me. except for the hair, anyway. everyone notices the lack of hair.

UPDATE: found mario kart sunday morning, picked it up and an extra wii wheel. still looking for wii fit, however. at least if the barhopping doesn't pan out, we can play mario kart back at the house. drunk. woooo.

the man with the plan.

after several years of toiling away, seeming as though I'd never dig myself out, I'm on the cusp of being revolving debt free.

I've put in some overtime at work, and should be seeing a fat commission on sales next payday. that will pay off the first of three cards. I've dipped into saving a bit to pay off a huge chunk of the second. the remainder of that big card will be paid off in july, as well as my third card.

I only have three cards.

I'll still owe another $4k or so on my car, it'll be paid off by the end of the year.

oh sure, the student loan will take another five or six years to pay off, but that's a given. $28k just doesn't disappear overnight.

but it'll be really damn nice to have those credit cards paid off. at that point, we can really start saving for a downpayment on a house (I'm still hoping to be able to afford a mortgage by next summer), and miyuki will be rewarded for all of her patience. she'll be able to go shopping and buy herself pretty things when she wants, and we won't have to worry about it.

everything's going to start going on my air miles card, figure if we buy everything on it (gas, groceries, etc), we'll be building up a thousand miles or so each month. that'll add up quickly and enable us to travel more often.

most surprising, however, was that I finally worked up the courage to check my credit score. I'd been scared shitless to check, knowing how badly the ex-wife raped my credit. turns out, I'm in pretty good shape. sure, the number she did on the car payment hurts, but it looks like everything else she did is now gone. that, combined with rapidly paying down everything I could resulted in a score of 749. by the time we're looking at mortgages, I'm hoping to get it up to 800. even so, anything over 740 for FICO is considered very good, so I'm in good shape.

woot!