The "P's"

I went to the doctor on Friday...turns out I have Walking Pneumonia. Not only do the symptoms suck but “they” (as in the man) had to make the word so complicated to spell. It wouldn’t be a problem if people still spoke on the phone but since texting has now taken over I find myself having to spell it a lot. As much as having the “P” sucks, it has allowed me to sit and relax a little bit. Just today I finished my taxes, updated my car registration, read a book, put away some bills and wrote this blog. I am a bit tired now but what else is new, I have a hard time blaming that on the “P”. While at the doctors office it became quite clear to me that I will never be a doctor or a nurse. The idea of being around sick people all the time and then telling them what drugs to take scares me. What also scares me is that someone can diagnose you so quickly without running 15 different tests. That being said I walked out with some pills and not one but two inhalers. Sexy I know.

I am now on Pinterest. If you are also on "P" you should follow me and then I will follow you. For those of you who are not on it I would defiantly recommend it. I think you have to be invited by someone who is already on it so if you are interested let me know and I will invite you. It is basically a place where people go and “pin” certain pictures, recipes, inspirational quotes, people, helpful items, style tips, movies…etc. You are able to follow other people and or like their items they post.

Here are some of the cool things I have found so far...

Source: blog.freepeople.com via Kennedy on Pinterest

Source: saifou.com via Kennedy on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Kennedy on Pinterest

More to come, ttys Kennedy

Mac vs PC

I know I have not written in awhile. My computer finally had enough fun and decided to accept mortality. It was a good PC; we had a lot of fun together traveling the world, making some trips to the Geek Squad, writing papers late at night, tagging it with multiple random stickers etc. That being said I took the leap and purchased a new MacBook Pro. I spent awhile thinking about it and decided to make the investment. To be honest it’s a lot better than my 7-year-old PC (since that took 20 min just to turn on) but I still have not decided how much I like the Mac. I think it’s going to have to grow on me and/or I am going to have to learn how to use it. Not being able to use control C for copy is going to be tough.

Likes: Talks well with my iPad and iPhone, no virus protection needed, menu is easy to use.

Dislikes: They transferred my music over to a folder but iTunes is telling me I need to “find” all of the songs (one at a time) now before I can play them…I have 9000 songs. If anyone knows how to do it in a more efficient way please let me know. Also, sometimes I don’t know how to find the scroll bar on the side of a page…that’s frustrating.

Side Note: The power just went out in my house due to a wind/rain storm. In a way I feel like I am in the olden days when people would write next to candlelight. I have candles around me but I am not sure if they are producing as much light as my bright screen. That being said now thanks to no power aka no Internet, no TV and no lights to read …this blog may be a little longer now.

Lets see the Packers lost. I guess when you have 4 turnovers, 10 dropped passes and your QB is your leading rusher you are not supposed to win. That being said I will now be cheering for the SF 49ers to win this year. All of my CA friends are happy about that. Man sitting in the dark can be very creepy with the strong winds and heavy rain. I hope the lights go back on soon, its also starting to get cold…(mid 50’s). Time to find food. Back in a bit.

I am working on new blog ideas so stay tuned. If you have any for me please let me know. Britt – yours will come soon :)

Power just came back on and I just found out I can do command C to copy…plus one for MAC.

Cash November

Well all cash November is over. I was able to take out a lump sum of money on Nov 1st and make it last the whole month. When I went to the bank to take out the lump sum, I was standing in line trying to think of a great story about why I was taking out all of this money. I guess I expected the teller to say "wow you want to take out how much?" I thought about saying I was using it to join the secret service, travel to Africa and help underprivileged children etc. When I stepped up and asked him for the money he said "how would you like that?" I told him twenties were fine and went on my way...

I think the hardest part of this experiment for me was to remember to bring cash with me when I left the house. I also really had to think about what I was going to buy, when I was going to buy it and how much I wanted to spend on one thing versus another thing. I also went on an unplanned trip to Reno for a football game and that was not budgeted into my plan. Lucky for me most of the trip was free and I hit Red 23 playing roulette so I was able to make it rain…well kind of.

A fellow blogger informed me that I should separate my money. I did this by creating a “food” envelop, a “gas” envelope, and an “other” envelop. It worked for awhile but by the end it just became the “everything” envelop.
Overall it was a good experience for me. I don’t think I have ever tracked what I spend money on in every facet of my life. I typically will spend the money and then track it afterwards. I want to believe that I spent less money this month than I typically would have if I used cards but I found out that my month to month spending really does vary. What I can say is that I spent smarter and I now have a better idea of what I spend on food, gas and extra items.

Do I recommend going cash only for the rest of my life or for other people? Probably not, truth is it is not very realistic due to the fact that some places don’t take cash anymore or “frown” upon it. I do recommend carrying some cash on you at all times. Many articles I read said that people who use credit cards to pay for everything especially the people who use them to pay for things under $10 typically spend more money overall than people who use cash.

The fact is credit is even more important today than it ever was. To build that credit you need to have a credit card and spend "fake money." I am not sure who invented credit cards but I can just see that conversation now “guys lets make people spend our money, if they don’t pay us back we will charge them an arm and a leg but at the same time if they don’t spend our money we will give them poor or no credit." Brilliant! In the end I guess it just means we soon will be saying goodbye to cash and goodbye to change. I remember when I used to see a penny on the ground I would pick it up, now some people don’t even pick up quarters let alone pennies. I have to admit it is easier to just swipe your card, I mean who needs math anymore…I am surprised they still teach it in school. haha

Moral of this story is that we now live in a Visa and MasterCard world.