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April 02, 2007
march wrapup blog entry
I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been busy. (ninja edit: I just checked and realized I didn't write at all during the month of March. Sorry to everybody who thinks I'm dead in a ditch!) But here's a quick digest of everything that's gone on in the last month or so:
- Kara got me a beautiful 22" flatpanel LCD monitor for my gaming computer for my 29th birthday.
- I got Kara a dual-drop-leaf dining room table from Ikea, along with 6 chairs and cushions, for her 29th birthday.
- On the subject of birthdays, I celebrated mine by going to my first NBA game the night before (the Celtics lost), and then having friends over to the condo where we drank Coors Light out of cans, ordered Pizza, and watched movies including Spaceballs, The Big Lebowski, and Tron (it was sort of a mini Jeff Bridges Film Festival). I also got a red lightsaber and Kara and I had some swordfights.
- Kara's birthday was a little tougher, given that hers was on a weeknight when we both had class, but we did celebrate with her mum at Legal Seafoods after looking at a potential wedding location.
- Speaking of which, we looked at five potential locations for the wedding: Rocky Shores, which is the inn Kara's family used to own and run in Rockport, Topsfield Common, which is a nice historic building in the small town of Topsfield, Misselwood at Endicott College, which is a seaside estate on a campus, Tavern on the Harbor in Gloucester, which is an event hall on the waterfront in Gloucester, and The Elks at Bass Rocks, which is the headquarters of the local Elks chapter in Gloucester and has a spectacular view of the ocean.
- As of this morning, we have officially chosen The Elks at Bass Rocks as the location of our wedding, to be held August 16th, 2008. We will plan to have an outside ceremony at the facility, with reception to follow indoors. The view of the ocean is absolutely wonderful, and I think we'll have a great party that everyone will really enjoy.
- On that note, we get a discount if I join the Elks, and hey, dad was a Moose for awhile. Kara's uncle Beau is an Elk, and I've been kicking around the idea of joining a philanthropic "adult fraternity" for awhile, so I think I'm going to do it.
- We also went to our first NHL game, which the Bruins lost. (Seeing a pattern?) But it was fun! Hockey is such an awesome and completely underrated spectator sport.
- We've been doing as much cooking at home as possible. Ground turkey is the perfect meat. It makes amazing chili, burgers, tacos, you name it. You need to season it, but once you start really cooking with it, you'll probably not go back to ground beef.
- School continues to go just fine. I got a decent grade on my Finance mid-term. We're doing a computer simulation in Marketing, managing a brand of cold medication, and our team went from last place in the first week to second place in week two, so I think we're doing something right.
- Work is also just fine. Pete, my boss, left the company to go be an analyst, and so far we are all rising to the occasion and doing some good work. I'm almost finished with a pretty big project that involves us working with Johns Hopkins, who obviously is a hospital very near and dear to my heart.
- I'm spending a fair amount of my free time not going to bars, but playing computer games. I finally finished System Shock 2, one of the scariest games ever. I'm glad it's over because now I can sleep at night.
- Mom and Dad got me a really great birthday present, a subscription to The Economist. It's such a quintessentially British look at world news, which is nice to have, given the Ameri-centric view of most US media.
- I've seen a lot of MJP lately, with him in town two weekends ago for Katie's bridal shower, then us going to NYC last weekend for the birthday of Kara's friend Chris. It was great hanging out in NYC again, and much thanks to MJP and Katie for sharing their chock-full of wedding gifts apartment with us. Also, we drove to the city, which took all of 4 hours, and found parking on the street only a block away. I think I'll be making more trips down there now that I know how close it is.
- I am an idiot and let the front-end misalignment of my car ruin one of my front tires. Spend $75 on an alignment, kids, because if you let it go too long, you're looking at a new tire as well as a tie rod, which ran me $400.
- I was due for a free phone upgrade, and I'm tired of both smartphones and candy bar phones, so I just ordered myself a free (after rebate) replacement, which is a nice, utilitarian, LG flip phone.
- We got some free furniture, including a new mattress, from Kara's dad and stepmom. They are cleaning out Nonnie's apartment, so some of the stuff is coming here. So far, we haven't had to buy a single rug; our hall runners are from Rocky Shores, our bedroom carpet is from Kara's mum, and the living room carpet is coming from Nonnie's. Also, there has been a decanter full of scotch sitting in her apartment for years now, and while cleaning up, I said that I had to at least take a sniff to see how it was. That turned into a taste, and let me tell you, scotch sure does mellow as it ages.
- Mom and Dad got a new car, a Focus. I didn't expect them to be going from a Taurus to a car with a spoiler on the back; I figured the next car would be some sort of Cadillac. But there you go.
- Easter is this weekend, and we'll be doing our usual thing in Rockport with a sunrise service. We're also dying eggs this year.
- Finally, Kara doesn't know it yet, but she passed the Regulation part of her CPA exam. She'll find out in about an hour-and-a-half when she gets home. If you read this early and want to congratulate her, definitely call her to do it, but wait until after about 10:30 p.m. on April 2nd. I am exceedingly proud and happy, and I know that she is going to become a CPA.
Posted by Mark at 08:12 PM | Comments (2)