Welcome to 2005.
I am fine, how are you?
I never finished my last blog post. I ran out of steam before I described my trip to Zurich. Well, I was in Zurich and it was very expensive. There, that is the short version.
I had a fine holiday season, though I did succumb to temptation and eat far too many sweets. Now it is 2005 and back to dieting. I did not, however, give in to any temptation for alcohol. Alcohol, you have no power over me. I banish thee.
We had a lovely Christmas at my parent's new home. They both seemed very happy, especially my Mom.
The kids got everything they wanted for Christmas. Yeay kids!
We refinanced our home and will be able to completely pay off the new house. In one sense debt has simply shifted from one place to another yet, in another sense, as we dip into the equity in our existing home we have realized something 'real'. My Mom and Dad have a lovely house to live in and I will hold the deed to piece of property in my hand. That is certainly kind of 'real'.
Over the holiday season I acquired a major new film for my collection! I picked up an IB-Technicolor print of "Dumbo" for only $250!! This print would normally sell for a minimum of a thousand dollars, so I feel very happy with it. The print has more than a normal amount of surface wear, but no heavy continuous lines. I believe it will look better after it has been thoroughly cleaned. My collection of classic Disney films is close to complete. I now own, all in excellent condition, "The Little Mermaid", "Dumbo", "Lady and the Tramp", "Pinnochio", and "101 Dalmations".
I also received a 12 foot by 12 foot da-lite projection screen which I won in an auction on Ebay. However, I could not get it to work and returned it for a refund.
Just the other day I finally put up for auction the crown jewel in my film collection. My absolutely mint condition print of "The Empire of the Sun"; one of my favorite films of all time. The thing is, even though it is such a fantastic film, because it is very long and a drama, chances are I won't actually 'show' it many times in the future. I have decided to sell it so I can buy a Xenon projector; something I want more. A Xenon projector uses a 350watt bulb that puts out 2,000 lumens of pure white lite. Fantastic for outdoor showings in the summer time.
On New Years Eve Terry and I went to a party at David Whatley's house. Dave was sponsoring a no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament; including hundreds of dollars in prizes. In fact, he had a prize for every single person who played poker! Twenty people fought valiantly to be the big winner which turned out to be.....me! I won the whole thing on a 3 and a 5 not suited. I managed to hit the straight while David, who came in second, just missed his.
For the first place prize I got an Apple Ipod-mini, which is a very cool MP3 device.
Over the weekend I did some reading and watched some football. I spent some time discussing vacation options with my family. We wanted to go to Hawaii for easter break, but that just isn't going to happen. To take the four of us, Terry, myself, Alex and Lauren, would have cost almost six thousand dollars. Since we have incurred $4,500 in car repair bills in just the last month, there was no way.
Instead we are going to drive somewhere for vacation, hopefully extracting some of the value from those car repair bills. I took out a compass and drew a circle from St. Louis on a map of the United States encompassing a thirteen hour drive in all directions. Thirteen hours is how long the flight from Hawaii would have taken, not including having to get to the airport hours early.
We still haven't decided definitively where we will go, but I will let this blog know when we do.
Now that it is the New Year my main goal is to continue my effort at self improvement. I want to continue to stay off of alcohol and to eat healthy. I made one New Years resolution to not drive my BMW to work unless it was such a beautiful day I could put the top down. I running down my very nice car for what are really just boring commuting miles. This morning the lowly Ford Focus got me to my destination without any adverse effects.
I am also going to get more involved in my community this year, and I am going to start by trying to join an organization that is dedicated to this cause.
That is all for the moment, just don't say I never write.
I am fine, how are you?
I never finished my last blog post. I ran out of steam before I described my trip to Zurich. Well, I was in Zurich and it was very expensive. There, that is the short version.
I had a fine holiday season, though I did succumb to temptation and eat far too many sweets. Now it is 2005 and back to dieting. I did not, however, give in to any temptation for alcohol. Alcohol, you have no power over me. I banish thee.
We had a lovely Christmas at my parent's new home. They both seemed very happy, especially my Mom.
The kids got everything they wanted for Christmas. Yeay kids!
We refinanced our home and will be able to completely pay off the new house. In one sense debt has simply shifted from one place to another yet, in another sense, as we dip into the equity in our existing home we have realized something 'real'. My Mom and Dad have a lovely house to live in and I will hold the deed to piece of property in my hand. That is certainly kind of 'real'.
Over the holiday season I acquired a major new film for my collection! I picked up an IB-Technicolor print of "Dumbo" for only $250!! This print would normally sell for a minimum of a thousand dollars, so I feel very happy with it. The print has more than a normal amount of surface wear, but no heavy continuous lines. I believe it will look better after it has been thoroughly cleaned. My collection of classic Disney films is close to complete. I now own, all in excellent condition, "The Little Mermaid", "Dumbo", "Lady and the Tramp", "Pinnochio", and "101 Dalmations".
I also received a 12 foot by 12 foot da-lite projection screen which I won in an auction on Ebay. However, I could not get it to work and returned it for a refund.
Just the other day I finally put up for auction the crown jewel in my film collection. My absolutely mint condition print of "The Empire of the Sun"; one of my favorite films of all time. The thing is, even though it is such a fantastic film, because it is very long and a drama, chances are I won't actually 'show' it many times in the future. I have decided to sell it so I can buy a Xenon projector; something I want more. A Xenon projector uses a 350watt bulb that puts out 2,000 lumens of pure white lite. Fantastic for outdoor showings in the summer time.
On New Years Eve Terry and I went to a party at David Whatley's house. Dave was sponsoring a no-limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament; including hundreds of dollars in prizes. In fact, he had a prize for every single person who played poker! Twenty people fought valiantly to be the big winner which turned out to be.....me! I won the whole thing on a 3 and a 5 not suited. I managed to hit the straight while David, who came in second, just missed his.
For the first place prize I got an Apple Ipod-mini, which is a very cool MP3 device.
Over the weekend I did some reading and watched some football. I spent some time discussing vacation options with my family. We wanted to go to Hawaii for easter break, but that just isn't going to happen. To take the four of us, Terry, myself, Alex and Lauren, would have cost almost six thousand dollars. Since we have incurred $4,500 in car repair bills in just the last month, there was no way.
Instead we are going to drive somewhere for vacation, hopefully extracting some of the value from those car repair bills. I took out a compass and drew a circle from St. Louis on a map of the United States encompassing a thirteen hour drive in all directions. Thirteen hours is how long the flight from Hawaii would have taken, not including having to get to the airport hours early.
We still haven't decided definitively where we will go, but I will let this blog know when we do.
Now that it is the New Year my main goal is to continue my effort at self improvement. I want to continue to stay off of alcohol and to eat healthy. I made one New Years resolution to not drive my BMW to work unless it was such a beautiful day I could put the top down. I running down my very nice car for what are really just boring commuting miles. This morning the lowly Ford Focus got me to my destination without any adverse effects.
I am also going to get more involved in my community this year, and I am going to start by trying to join an organization that is dedicated to this cause.
That is all for the moment, just don't say I never write.
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