february recap

Well, February was nothing short of interesting. The start of the month totally changed my life. Nickles ripped the soul from my body by ceasing the production of my beloved fat-free bread. I bought up the remaining six loaves and ate every last one of them in triumphant glory. My replacement bread isn't anywhere near as good (or as hearty) but it'll do. At least I don't have to modify my lifestyle. That would have been much more difficult than going on a trek for fat-free bread. And hey, at least I got some cool coupons from their response to the letter I wrote them.

I spent one miserable night away from my bed in order to complete support pack upgrades on our SRM system at work. While I'm no stranger to late nights, I definitely didn't come prepared as I struggled to stay awake. After my work was complete (and many hours of watching Spongebob DVDs), I was able to make a hasty exit at 6:00am. I couldn't avert disaster though, as I ended up missing the next few days of work with the grip. Come to think of it, I missed more work in the month of February than I have missed in a LONG time. I hope to have put all of that crap behind me. The grand total of my absenteeism - 5 days. (scattered throughout the month)

I scored a Valentine's day haul that was awfully good. My love for the show "Flight of the Conchords" grew to immeasurable proportions, so Reese got me the complete first season on DVD. I also got a 12 month subscription to a home brewing magazine called Brew Your Own. (link to the right)

Reese and I finally settled on building a house. We've got some money saved and we've settled on a design. She even picked out the best building spot on the hill. Now all that's left to do is get some land signed over to my name, and we'll be cookin!

One of my favorite parts of the month comes toward the end, when I got promoted. After a downright unpleasant meeting with management earlier in the month regarding my salary, they surprised me with an incredible raise. This was something I had seen coming, although not quite to the extent at which it was taken. Long story short, I got more than I had wanted and it puts Reese and I in a very good position in terms of building our house.

February rounded out to be a decent month, all things considered. New headliner image tomorrow. I bet everyone's excited. What's even better is I'm blogging on a payday. Woo!
(Oh! And how could I get outa this month without brining up Rollo's laundry day one more time? Dead of winter? Temps in the single digits? No matter. Rollo will wear shorts at any cost on laundry day.)

papa's promoted!

Just two days ago I called Reese on my way home from work. I had asked her if she thinks I should stick around Consol much longer since I could probably make more money elsewhere. She's ever the optimist, telling me to stick it out seeing as how it will be a valuable experience and that my current job will lead to much better things down the road. Not a day later do I walk into work when the director and vice president of IS&T approach me and request that meet them in the director's office. Its not often that they'll both ask you to sit down with them for a chat, and its even more rare that you'll meet with them for something good. (a few of you may remember the malady that occurred a month earlier when they were pissed that I had applied elsewhere for a job) Much to my relief though, it was a damn pleasant meeting.

On Friday (without me knowing), the decision was passed down from the president that I was to be promoted effective February 25th. The promotion wasn't a "structural" promotion where I would assume a different position - it was a salary-grade promotion. Meaning I do the same job, I just earn more money. I've also got my annual performance raise coming in April, which I'm very excited about. All said, I'm not going to need to find another job right away.

Tying it all up, I thought it interesting that no more than a day later Reese turns out to be right. (yet again)

pencil pencil

Aside from taking the occasional exam at the 'U, I really don't have much use for pencils anymore. I came to this realization this morning when I was attending a mandatory "Drug & Alcohol Awareness" program here at the plaza. As I took my seat directly in front of the bowl of candy, (arriving 10 minutes early pays VAST dividends while enduring boring meetings) I had noticed the same pencil/paper combination that's set out for every mandatory meeting: three sheets of loose-leaf, Consol letterhead and a single #2 Ticonderoga pencil sharpened to precision with the finest of Swingline brand pencil sharpeners. As usual, I take my own notebook to these functions so I can jot down podcast ideas, general ramblings or realities I tend to misconstrue. So boring was the meeting that I needed to keep writing something --- ANYTHING --- to remain awake. I ended up ditching my pen (which was unusually messy for a Monday - he typically starts the work week strong) for the given pencil. I began to write:

Pencil Pencil
Pencil Pencil

"who the hell uses a pencil in the era of digital words?"
"this is keeping me awake"
DAMN BORING PRESENTATION
"i hardly ever write with a pencil"
be sure to BLOG about this

Ticonderoga, suckers!

many conflicting decisions

Since the beginning of the year, Reese and I have tried to develop a plan for dealing with our current housing issue. Sure, we're fine living at home for now, but there will come a time (some say as soon as July) where we should really have our own digs. We've gone from being totally "gun-ho" about renting a small place, to renting a small house to our current thought - which is to build a friggin' house.

Rewinding a bit, since I've graduated college I've become somewhat of a dabbler in the realm of finance/accounting. I take great pride in knowing where my cash goes and having a well balanced budget. What I've learned about finance in the past year could fill blogs upon blogs. (God, I love acquiring knowledge!) Now that I'm more educated in how my money can work for me, I realize that Reese and I would only be wasting lots (and I mean LOTS) of valuable income if we were to rent anything aside from a shanty in beautiful downtown Filbert.

The only way to make money is to spend money. We can do this by building a home on a plot of land that my mom will parcel out to me. I figure if I can tap into the resources that I know this land possesses (like earth, wind and fire!), building just might be worthwhile. No way in hell am I going to throw half a paycheck into rent and have nothing to show for it.

Tomorrow, I'll start taking initial mappings for the beast.