Beside the Pointe

There's Nothing Funny About The Way I Talk

In November of last year The Hubby and I took a much deserved trip to Australia. Neither of us had ever been to Sydney and the prices were too good to pass up ($655 per person round-trip).

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Royal Botanical Garden

Large Fruit Bats in the Royal Botanical Gardens

Sydney Opera House

Hyde Park

Sydney skyline

There are tons more pictures that I will have to include in a later date.

All and all, Sydney was an awesome city to visit and the people were really nice. I highly recommend visiting the city and country if ever given the chance.

Happy 29th To Me!

A little while back I celebrated my birthday with The Hubby and The Ladies at Papa Deux's. 

I received some awesome gifts (not pictured is me receiving tickets to see Phantom of the Opera):

And I also received the single best birthday cake I've ever had.  Seriously.  This cake trumps my Strawberry Shortcake cake I had when I was four, it trumps my Alfred E. Newman cake when I was eleven and it trumps my Rednose cake from just a few years ago.  Behold my Jason Voorhees Friday the 13th cake:

Yes, it's okay.  Be jealous.

Inside the cake was a strawberry filling which is oh-so-appropriate for a horror movie character cake.

Binge And Purge: How Do I Accumulate So Much Crap?

With my latest flight of fancy of being frugal I have come to realize that I have a lot of crap in my house and half of it I cannot account for.

I have no recollection as to when I bought some of these items or for what purpose.  I'm fairly certain there was a reason and purpose at the time.  I'm sure of it.

But that purpose has completely escaped my memory and all I am left with a bunch of crap in my house much like a hoarder.

So because of this recent epiphany I have made today a shredding/recycling day.  All I'm going to do today is go through all my stuff and see what I can shred or recycle.

Pile of papers found on top of dresser?  Recycle!  Mystery receipts shoved into my ten purses?  Shred!  Socks that have no matching partner (as sad as that is)?  Recycle!  Old check book carbon copies that have been hanging out in my closet since 2003?  Shred!

Oh man, I am getting things done!

But yet, as I look around my surroundings I realize there are some items, for one reason or another that I cannot bare part with.

For example, my little ceramic parrot:

This little guy measures about four inches tall, has a chip on his tail and has had his tail broken completely off and re-glued.  Ordinarily my parrot would be considered junk, and rightfully so, but I can't bare to toss him in the trash ( I read once that any figurine that has been broken should be promptly tossed).

I received my little parrot when I was about ten-years-old and have loved him ever since regardless of whether or not he matches my home decor.  He makes me smile with his cheerful colors and his little hint of a beaky smile.

Another item that I can't seem to get rid of after almost two decades of ownership is my little set of resin dragons:

Again, having owned these whimsical little guys since childhood I have since grown too attached to them.  The funny thing is, I don't even really care for dragons that much.  I did once upon a time but no longer.  Regardless, the little dragons will stay with me until probably my death.

Are there any miscellaneous items that you cannot part with?

Frugal Is Not Just A Fun Word To Say

"I went to the bank and reviewed my savings, I found out I have all the money I'll ever need. If I die tomorrow." --Henry Youngman

Is that quote applicable to any of my Pointe readers?  It's applicable to me. 

Not to sound so cliche´, but with the economy behaving the way it has, I have started to take an interest in trying to be more frugal.

I'm sure my frugality has always been there, lurking and waiting for the opportune time to show itself.  I just kept beating it back with my newer-is-more-awesome mentality.

Part of my new found frugality has been somewhat voluntary via credit cards while the other part has been completely voluntary.

First, the semi-voluntary frugality.  Not too long ago I had only two credit cards and I liked it like that.  Then one day I had some unexpected truck and cat bills so before I knew it I had $1100 on one credit card.  "That's fine" I thought to myself until I had another $1085 pop up which ended up on my least favorite card, American Express.

Well, right around the same time as my $1085 charge my statement came from my other credit card and I noticed something had changed.  My APR had drastically increased despite not ever being late on a payment.  After calling the company and asking for a reduction I was refused with the excuse "We're doing this to all our customers".  Well isn't that dandy?

I did the only thing I could do and that was to apply for another card with a zero percent interest rate for nine months.  I was accepted and immediately did a balance transfer. 

This was all a couple of months ago and I'm currently sitting at $465 on my American Express card and about $1070 on the new card.  Reason being is that I'm only making minimum payments on the new card as it is only zero percent and paying big chunks towards the Amex card.  Once that is all paid for come the beginning of October then it's time to put big chunks of money towards the new card starting in December.  I should be done paying off that new card in February.

What warms my heart about all this (besides being out of debt) is that Amex just sent me a statement letting me know that they are upping my APR as well because of the economy, not because of any fault of my own.  Luckily, that doesn't kick in until the beginning of October by which point the card will be paid in full.  Suck it American Express!

So, because of my "financial discipline" in my desire to pay off my cards as quickly as possible I started looking for ways to save more money.  Surprisingly I found a money saving idea right in my very own vintage cookbooks. 

I own a vintage set of cookbooks from 1968 titled "Favorite Recipes of America" and each book is divided by category (there are five total).  My money saving book is the one dedicated to casseroles. 

I've never made casseroles up until this point and I wasn't sure if I would care for them much considering I did not come from a casserole making family and my exposure to casseroles was minimal at best growing up.  But, I figured that making a casserole would save me money in the long run as many of the ingredients are multi-use and The Hubby and I could live off of the casserole for at least three days, thus avoiding going out to lunch at work and having to make dinners for at least a couple of nights.

So far my plan has worked out beautifully and the casseroles are stupendous.  I should really post some of the recipes on The Pointe.

How are you trying to save money?

Knee Agreement

A little bit ago I injured my knee.  Nothing too extensive, or at least I like to tell myself that.

You see, I was getting ready to workout in my house with my free standing punching bag (I like to do kicks and punches reminiscent of my taekwondo years.  It keeps me limber and gets the stress out.)  Well, as I was getting ready for my workout I decided to go into the kitchen to get some water before starting.  On my way to the kitchen, the youngest of my cat brood has a horrible habit of hiding under furniture pieces and then jumping out and attacking my feet or legs.  Generally he does this from under my bed while I am getting ready in the morning for work and I fully expect the attack every morning.

However, I was not expecting an attack from under the back of the recliner as I was walking by.

Well, needless to say that my gracefulness is that of an injured gazelle.  Meaning my limbs went splaying everywhere but where they would've been most useful as I accepted my fate in the jaws of a lion (in this case Humpty) and I crash landed on my left knee onto the floor.

It hurt for a moment or two but I was able to get up and walk about.  After about 30-40 minutes the incident was far behind me and I went to workout.  Everything went well during the first 20 minutes of the workout until the second to last roundhouse kick.  That's when the pain came back.  Tenfold.

As I went to kick I felt this sensation of an intense pain shoot through the back of knee and then my knee gave out.  I was down on the floor for a second time only this time I was holding my knee for about two minutes in excruciating pain.  But as quickly as the pain arrived it left just as fast.  I got up and gave myself a test walk.  My knee felt a little unstable but I could walk without pain.  I decided to call it a night and went to bed.

Little did I know the real pain was waiting for me the next day.

I got up in the morning and the moment I put weight on my knee it screamed with pain.  I couldn't straighten my leg fully nor could I bend it fully.  I held onto the wall of bedroom and limped my way to the bathroom.  Trying to sit down on the toilet was interesting as well as getting up from it.  I managed to get dressed, though putting on pants was ridiculous.  I hobbled my way out to my truck and that's when I realized I had no idea how to get into my truck.  You see, one must step up onto a siderail in order to get into my truck as it is a little lifted off of the ground.  Seeing as that I could not put weight on my left leg this left me in a curious predicament. 

The best I can describe it is that I had to lift my left leg onto the siderail with my hands, I then grabbed the steering wheel and the door for support, held my breath, and pushed off with my right leg just enough to get the right leg onto the siderail so I could put my weight on it, all the while I'm hoping in my head that my left leg wouldn't give out on me.  It all worked out successfully though there was a lot of cursing involved.

The rest of my day went very much like that as well as the oncoming weeks.  Each day my knee got better and I was able to do more things like walk, climb up stairs, put socks on without looking idiotic.

Currently my knee still gives me twinges as a reminder that it is not 100% and that I should probably see a doctor but I figure that as long as I can do what I need to then it's fine. 

Right?

So This Is What A College Degree Gets You...

You know that saying, "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today."?  Well, I should've taken great heed to that advice.

Yours truly could've walked in the graduation ceremony this past spring semester had it not been for complete laziness.

You see, after this past semester I only had one class seperating me from my two degrees and that was a critical reading class.  Well, in order to take a critical reading class one must first take a placement test in order to see what level that individual is at.  I figured that I would take the placement test after my spring semester was over so in the fall I would know what reading class I would need to take along with my new pre-med classes.

As promised to myself I did just that.  Except there was one minor detail I had forgotten in all my planning which was an individual can actually test exempt out of the reading class if they score high enough.  So, take a guess as to what I scored on my reading test.

Exempt.

Sigh...

Had I taken the test during my spring semester and tested exempt that would of meant that I would have satisfied all my classes for my double majors and I would have graduated and walked in the ceremony this spring.  Instead, I'll be walking in the spring of 2010 (as I found out one can participate in a delayed commencement ceremony). 

The plus side is that I will still be attending the school for all my pre-med classes so it's not an entire loss.

A Vacation With The Ladies Part 3

On our way back from California we stopped off at Cabazon to visit their famous dinosaurs.

Even Rednose likes the dinosaurs.

Sadly, there were three victims at the dinosaur park

The last day of vacation ended with a cheesy, touristy bang.

A Vacation With The Ladies Part 2

On our second day at Six Flags Magic Mountain we decided to conquer the rest of the roller coasters that we didn't ride the previous day. 

First up was Goliath.  At first the ladies weren't too excited about riding it:

That clearly did not change while on the ride.  You will note that Pirate Princess is trying to get as low as possible in her seat while Bare Minimum has a major death grip going on:

After conquering Goliath we were all feeling pretty mighty.  To prove our mightiness we went and got ourselves some capes.

You can't mess with two Wonder Women and one Supergirl.

Superman was next on our list.  In case any of you are unaware, that metal tower in the background that is pointing straight up is the roller coaster track for Superman.

As can be clearly seen, we were ready for the challenge.

Up next was Scream which may or may not have been the roller coaster that caused Bare Minimum's breakdown the previous day:

We wrapped up our final day with Deja Vu and a few repeat rides like Ninja and Tatsu and Viper.  All and all a great trip was had at Magic Mountain.

A Vacation With The Ladies

For the first time ever I have taken a trip with nothing but female friends and I had a blast!  So this is what it means to grow up.

As mentioned many moons ago, I was heading out to California to have fun at Six Flags Magic Mountain as I am a huge roller coaster enthusiast (minus the means to travel to every theme park in the world).

Our day started out fantastic as can be seen below with the picture of yours truly in the middle with Bare Minimum to my right and Pirate Princess to my left and Tweety Bird in the palm of my hand:

The weather was nice as it didn't really get hotter than 70 degrees so it made all the walking around, including hill climbing, much more enjoyable.

Our first stop was X2, which is an amazing roller coaster.  While waiting in line I felt it was the perfect time for Rednose to get in on the picture taking action (that's Viper behind him):

The added features since I last rode it (back in 2006 perhaps) were awesome.  Something worth noting is that G-forces are not a chubby girl's best friend when it comes to pictures:

By the way, all of you will be begin to notice a common theme amongst my roller coaster pictures.  I can not ride a roller coaster without putting my hands up in the air.

As the day progressed we rode almost all the rides in the park only leaving a handful for the next day.  A certain someone (Bare Minimum) may of had a nervous break down which resulted in and ice cream break and her being the "mom" for the rest of the evening holding all our items while Pirate Princess and myself went on more rides.

The last ride of the evening for day one was Viper which is always a favorite.  As you'll see, Rednose is as hardcore as the two of us in the picture below:

A glorious end to a glorious first day.

Road Trip Across The States

Well, my fellow Pointe readers, with the economy going the way it is and the possibility of getting laid off from my job I've decided that the only responsible choice I have is to go on a cross country road trip. 

That's right.

Screw looking for another job, screw paying off debt (I'll still make payments on the road thanks to my iPhone) and screw being a mature adult.  I'm going to do something that I've always wanted to do.  In fact, driving cross country has been on my list of "Things To Do Before I Die" for as long as I can remember.

The way I figure it as long as I keep working I'll never have the opportunity to take a month off (not because I don't have the vacation time but because I don't have the luxury of working for a place that would actually let me vacation for a month) so being laid off will actually give me the luxury of traveling for a month without any worries besides having to find a job once I get back (minor detail).

Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I really can't imagine myself doing much else.  If I am one of the unlucky ones to be laid off I will be sad and I'll probably cry in a restroom stall so there won't be any witnesses but then again... the flip side of being able to travel across America and see the sites I want to see on my own time is a bit exhilarating and seductive.

I've already mapped out my route which will take me from Phoenix to Portland, Maryland and then back home taking a completely different route.  I still have to fine tune points of interest and what exactly I want to see in the cities I'll be visiting, but the hard part of mapping the trip is over.

I know the recession is hard on people and that no one is immune to it whether it be lay-offs or tightening the purse strings but sometimes there really is a silver lining in even the toughest of times.