Life Extravaganza

The Last Few Weekends

Mar 16th, 2012 by Kyle

I knew I’d be busy with starting up a personal finance blog but I didn’t realize I’d be THIS busy! Not only have I been trying to build up my blog by writing great content but I’ve also been trying to develop relationships with other PF bloggers. It’s a great community and I’ve been commenting on blogs, interacting on Twitter a whole lot, and even joined Yakezie which is a great site to help connect with other bloggers. This leaves absolutely no time for this blog!

But here’s my life in the past few weeks:

Went to San Francisco for the weekend and ate a whole lot of oysters

Went to Vegas and got to see my best friend again (she lives far away right now)

Went to Mammoth and had a wonderful time despite crappy snow conditions

It’s been an amazing few weeks and it’s not over yet! I’ll be heading to Big Bear this weekend for some (hopefully) amazing snow conditions!

Tags: las vegas, mammoth, san francisco, weekend trips, weekends

Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

Resolution Update: February

Mar 1st, 2012 by Kyle

Happy March! Here’s my monthly reviews on my 2012 resolutions:

1) Save $20,000. HALF PROGRESS. I only saved $861 because I booked the cabin for our Mammoth trip. I had to put down about $1500 but I plan on getting most of that back from people during the trip. Afterwards, I’ll put everything that I get back right into savings so I should be on tract after March.

2) Get a raise/promotion at work. DONE! Raise day was yesterday which was a big surprise to me. I’m satisfied with the raise I got although not ecstatic but that’s ok. I’ve only been here about 8 months so I can’t complain.

3) Run a 5K. ON TRACK! I started on the C25K program again and I just completed Week 5 Day 2 (walk for 5 min, run for 8, walk for 5, run for 8). I’m very intimidated by W5D3 though because it’s walk for 5, run for 20 minutes and I’m not sure I can do that…but I’m going to try! I’d like to sign up for a 5K soon.

4) Eat at least one meal at home between Thursday – Sunday. ON TRACK! We’re doing really well eating at home – even last weekend when we went to Vegas, we still ate at home on Thursday and Friday night.

5) Learn to link turns more smoothly in snowboarding. NO PROGRESS. Stupid snow conditions. I’m hoping that I’ll become much better at this during the Mammoth trip (second weekend of March).

6) Cook at least one “cookbook” meal a month. HALF PROGRESS. I haven’t been busting out my cookbooks but the point of this resolution was to try to cook new things. On Tuesdays, I now take a Zumba class then raid in WoW so I put meat in the crockpot in the morning so it’ll be ready when I get home. I tried this twice this month, one being a brand new recipe (or a mix of a couple of them) so I’m giving myself half credit here.

7) Plan a date night every other month. NO PROGRESS. It was the boyfriend’s turn in February and instead of planning one night, he’s taking me to San Francisco this weekend as a combo date night and Valentine’s day thing. Yay!

8 ) Write an Android app. NO PROGRESS. I can already see this becoming my failed resolution.

9) Read 100 books. BEHIND! I’m so screwed. I didn’t read ANYTHING in February. The only book I can count towards my goal is the one audio book I listened to - The Kite Runner which I actually really liked. I am now 8 books behind my goal so I need to get cracking on this one.

10) Volunteer at least twice this year. NO PROGRESS. Crap. Not doing well here either.

Overall, I had a great February…except with my resolutions. I’m down to about 4/10 resolutions – which is 20% worse than last month. Here’s hoping to a more productive March!

How are you doing with your resolutions?

Tags: resolutions

Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

Valentine’s Dinner: The Boiling Crab

Feb 22nd, 2012 by Kyle

For Valentine’s Day, the boyfriend and I went to a restaurant that everyone raves about but we had never tried: The Boiling Crab. And it was as delicious as everyone says.

IMAG2910 Valentines Dinner: The Boiling Crab

I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of my pound of shrimp before the meal so here’s my graveyard once I was done:

IMAG2915 Valentines Dinner: The Boiling Crab

In other news, I started working on a personal finance blog (one of my new found passions) so I may not be posting as often here – maybe once every few days instead of daily. What can I say, I love blogging!

Tags: alhambra, the boiling crab, valentines day

Posted in Foodie | No Comments »

Gummy Bear Ice Cream

Feb 16th, 2012 by Kyle

So I’m finally starting to feel better. I always know when I’m finally getting over being sick because I start to crave sugar again. Case in point:

Oh yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. That right there is Snickers ice cream topped with gummy bears. The Snickers ice cream was pretty good but honestly, I wouldn’t mind just plain vanilla. It really is my guilty pleasure – give me ice cream or frozen yogurt topped with gummy bears and I won’t be able to say no.

It’s actually pretty sad.

In fact just writing this is making me want another one. Crap.

The only thing that would make this even better? The mini gummy bears. Now that would be perfection.

Tags: dessert, guilty pleasure

Posted in Foodie | No Comments »

I Was Shot By Cupid

Feb 14th, 2012 by Kyle

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m one of those people who actually like to celebrate this day – although I’m perfectly fine with postponing the celebration until it’s not the 14th anymore. I like having this time to express our love, even though I understand we should be doing that every day. But I also know the 14th is so busy, especially in restaurants, so I can wait.

I accidentally guessed what the boyfriend was planning for V-day but I’m not going to post it until it actually happens – then it’s almost like a surprise. And I can’t write about what I got him until later because he reads this.

In the meantime, this is just a short post because I’m busy with this guy today.

Hi boyfriend. Love you!

Tags: boyfriend, holiday, love, valentines day

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Chinese New Year Celebration

Feb 13th, 2012 by Kyle

I know I’m late on posting this but I just had to share pictures from our Chinese New Year party. We celebrated pot-luck style the weekend after the New Year since everyone was busy with their own families until then…and here’s what we ended up with.

Warning: If you do not want to see a graphic pictures of a (dead and already cooked) pig being cut up, don’t scroll down.

Yes, the boyfriend bought a whole roast pig.

I was very disturbed by this but…I needed the photographic evidence. So here you guys go.

What the inside looks like:

And the most disturbing picture (in my opinion) taken all night:

As horrifying as it looked, it was delicious. And we had roast pig for the next week – although I eventually got sick of it, it really was delicious.

And for entertainment…

We had a group playing Mahjong and a group playing a game called WizWar.

Tags: chinese food, chinese new year, party, roasted pig

Posted in Foodie, Life | No Comments »

Why My Internet Is Not Boring (aka my favorite blogs)

Feb 9th, 2012 by Kyle

I have 183 blogs I try to stay up to date with. It took awhile for me to get them all organized so I could stay up to date and here’s a breakdown of how I did that – and what I read.

First, this is how my Google Reader looks (which is what I use for RSS subscriptions):

reader Why My Internet Is Not Boring (aka my favorite blogs)

I told you there are a lot. I finally managed to categorize them which helps me when I want to read about a specific thing. Lately my two favorite sections have been Personal Finance and Fitness. Those blogs really inspire me so I read them every day – which you can tell given that there are no unread items in either section.

Amazon Alerts

Ok, this isn’t really a blog but it is an RSS feed so I put it here. Basically, if I want something on Amazon, I use CamelCamelCamel and set up a tracker that will alert me when my item goes on sale. For more important items, I’ll set up an email alert – otherwise, I’ll just use their RSS option.

Friends’ Blogs (total blogs: 6) - all my real life friends whose blogs I want to read

My blog – I need to make sure my RSS feed for my posts looks good.

to look for: Style – A pretty new friend who blogs about fashion – one of the first fashion blogs I encountered actually.

Hello Lisanne – One of my friends from high school who I hope will continue to update her blog regularly

Riding That Learning Curve – A friend I met pretty recently has been writing about her experience learning how to ride a motorcycle. I hope she writes more soon – I miss reading about her experiences!

I also have a blog I read and contribute to with the people who I work with but I’m going to keep that one private. Also, another good friend recently started a blog but I’m not sure if she’d rather be anonymous, so I’ll keep her off of this.

Personal Finance (total: 50 blogs) - this section has really caught my interest and helped me learn A LOT about PF. I give them a lot of credit – I wouldn’t have started saving/budgeting as aggressively if I hadn’t started reading them. I can’t list them all but here are my favorite PF bloggers:

Budgeting In The Fun Stuff

Get Rich Slowly

Give Me Back My Five Bucks

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

PT Money

Punch Debt In The Face

The Professional Hobo (she’s mostly a travel blogger but since she approaches it financially, I put her here)

The Simple Dollar

Fitness Blogs (total blogs: 12) – I try to read this sometime in the afternoon to try to inspire me to go to the gym. And usually, it works! I like reading about different workouts, nutrition, etc. Since I’m just starting to build up this section, I’d love any recommendations! Here are my favorites so far:

Fit Chick in the City

Fit Bottomed Girls

Melinda’s Fitness Blog

Beauty Blogs (total blogs: 6) - This is a niche I just discovered – blogs about makeup/skincare. I haven’t read them enough to call them my favorites but here are a few from this section:

She Said Beauty

Glitter Geek

theNotice

Fashion Blogs (total blogs: 5) – I already mentioned one fashion blog up in my Friend section, but here is my favorite in this section:

Girl with Curves – I love love love her style, plus I just won a giveaway on her blog so now I love her even more.

Funny Blogs (total blogs: 7) – Sometimes, I just want a laugh and these are my favorite funny blogs I turn to:

Brittany Gibbons is the Barefoot Foodie

Get Off My Internets – I know, snarkie but I still find it funny.

The Bloggess

Eye Candy Blogs (total blogs: 7) – When I want to look at pretty pretty pictures, I turn to these:

Christina Richards

The Pioneer Woman: Photography

The Lettered Cottage

Mom Blogs (total blogs: 10) – No, I don’t know why I like reading these blogs when I have no kids of my own. Here are some for you:

An Inch of Gray

Mommy Wants Vodka

Wait in the Van

Lifestyle Blogs (total blogs: 26) – Like my blog, these blogs don’t focus on a specific subject. A couple of them:

Love Woke Me Up This Morning

Food Blogs (total blogs: 28) – Title says it all.

The Pioneer Woman: Cooking

Book Blogs (total blogs: 7) – I haven’t looked at these much lately, just haven’t really been into reading. But here are a couple if you want to check them out:

Childhood Trauma

I am a Reader not a Writer

The Story Siren

List Blogs (total blogs: 5) – This sounds kind of strange but there really are blogs that in my mind are “lists” (my mind works in weird ways). For example:

Cool Mom Tech

I Love Charts

Passive Aggressive Notes

Then I have Local News (3), Celebrity News (7) and News (4) none of which really have interested me lately so I won’t add those.

There you have it – the beginning of a list that should keep boredom at bay for at least a little while. And once you find a blog you like, check our their blogroll – and it’s even more entertainment! I remember the days before I used an RSS reader – I could never keep up. Now, well, I still don’t keep up but when I have time, I love reading through blogs. If you want any more recommendations in any section, let me know!

Do you have any blogs you love reading? Recommend them below!

Posted in Finance, Foodie, Life | 4 Comments »

Sickly

Feb 8th, 2012 by Kyle

You know how there are those people who are sick but don’t look sick at all? In fact, they look exactly like normal except maybe being sick gives them a sexy, husky edge to their voice? Their noses aren’t red, their eyes don’t water, they barely complain except to inform the world that they are sick?

Yeah. That’s not me.

I become a huge mess when I’m sick. I feel like I’m dying and I pretty much look like it also. I become Rudolph for about a week and you can always tell that I have a lot of snot up in my nose. Take the aforementioned description of the perfect sick person and flip it. Then you have me.

I’ll be back when I can actually think straight. Given past experiences, I should feel 100% by next Wednesday – exactly 10 days since I got sick. Since I started taking Zinc right when I felt sick, I’m hoping I can cut out a few days and be back to myself on Sunday. We’ll see!

Tags: sick

Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

$300 Spending Limit Challenge

Feb 3rd, 2012 by Kyle

I have a new challenge I’m participating in for February. It’s been awhile since I talked about my finances but let’s just say, I’m still trying to work on saving more and spending less (isn’t everyone?). So the boyfriend, my friend and I have decided to challenge ourselves for February.

Here is the challenge:

We each get $300 in cash for the month to spend on eating out and shopping for non-necessity items.

We can still spend as much as we need to on groceries, gas and necessities (soap, shampoo, etc).

Does this sound like a lot? Well, here are some numbers for reference. In January, I spent $403 on shopping and $263 on eating out – not including a couple birthday dinners (I budgeted for them separately). I actually did better than I expected with eating out but I have no idea what the hell happened shopping-wise. Total for the month was $666 on non-necessary things.

Therefore, having to cut that amount to $300 in February definitely seems challenging but not impossible. Although so far, I’ve already spent $30 because my mom told me about this awesome sale 99 Ranch was having on steamers. So I bought 2 as gifts since she already bought me one. Dammit.

Anyway, I’ll keep posting updates as we go through this to see how much I manage to pull off. I increased my grocery budget from $150 to $300 mainly because we’ll be eating in more this month, plus I have a Costco trip to restock some staples I’m out of.

I also have a Valentine’s Day budget this month that I’m not going to write about since the boyfriend reads this. But yes, Valentine’s Day is an exception from the budget above.

What are your spending habits like? Are they as bad as mine?

Tags: 300challenge, challenge, spending

Posted in Finance | No Comments »

Resolution Update: January

Feb 1st, 2012 by Kyle

Happy February! I have an exciting challenge that I’m starting with my friends which I’ll announce tomorrow, but I decided I want to do monthly reviews on my 2012 resolutions, just to make sure I’m staying on track.

1) Save $20,000. ON TRACK! In January, I saved about $1545. This is right where I want to be – my plan is to save $1550 every month. It’s weird because it doesn’t look right – I startd investing with Lending Club and put $1000 into there, so my savings accounts actually didn’t increase by much.

2) Get a raise/promotion at work. ON TRACK! I’m not sure about this one – my goal was really to just work harder. I’m going to say it’s going well because I’m happy with what I got done in January. I just need to keep up the motivation.

3) Run a 5K. ON TRACK! I haven’t signed up for a 5K yet but I did start running again – I’m still able to run a mile which makes me happy. I’m going to work on pushing that even more with the C25k program.

4) Eat at least one meal at home between Thursday – Sunday. ON TRACK! I’m actually really proud of myself for this one. During January, I actually spent$100 less than the amount I budgeted on food (although I made up for that with my shopping, dammit). We definitely ate in at least one meal per weekend – usually more! I think on average we only ate out maybe 3 times per weekend, instead of 6 times. Definite progress.

5) Learn to link turns more smoothly in snowboarding. NO PROGRESS. Although I’m definitely linking turns better than before, I only went snowboarding once in January due to the really crappy snow conditions here in SoCal. I’m hoping it’ll start to snow a little so I can work on this.

6) Cook at least one “cookbook” meal a month. ON TRACK! Kind of an easy start but I did follow a recipe so I count that as on track. As the month goes on, I’d like to do more complex recipes. I cooked the following in January:

139189444703211872 CNdS5py7 c Resolution Update: January

Source: tastykitchen.com via Kyle on Pinterest

7) Plan a date night every other month. ON TRACK! I took the boyfriend on a date night to eat sushi at Maki Yaki and then watched One For the Money – which I really liked! I love Janet Evanovich so I was really excited for this.

8 ) Write an Android app. NO PROGRESS. I didn’t even think about this. Whoops.

9) Read 100 books. BEHIND! I’m slacking on this – I only read 7 books in January. At this pace, I’ll only read 84 books for the year, although Goodreads informs me that I’m only 1 book behind my goal.

10) Volunteer at least twice this year. NO PROGRESS. Didn’t even look into this. Again, I say, Whoops.

I’m not going to give monthly updates on the last 5 because I think those are harder to quantify – they aren’t SMART goals after all. I’m on track for 6/10 goals which is 60%…which doesn’t look so good. And here I thought I was actually doing pretty well. Just means I’ll have to work harder in February!

How are your resolutions going?

Tags: resolutions, update

Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

Older Posts »

The Last Few Weekends

Resolution Update: February

Valentine’s Dinner: The Boiling Crab

Gummy Bear Ice Cream

I Was Shot By Cupid

Chinese New Year Celebration

Why My Internet Is Not Boring (aka my favorite blogs)

Sickly

$300 Spending Limit Challenge

Resolution Update: January

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